Making Local Government Sustainable

This book offers a comprehensive guide to achieving sustainability within the local government sector. It addresses the challenges of financial and operational decline faced by local governments worldwide, providing a detailed roadmap to improve their long-term viability.

Professors Drew and Miyazaki combine extensive practical experience with comprehensive scholarly knowledge, informed by their distinguished careers and significant advisory work. Each chapter addresses critical components of sustainability, offering evidence-based recommendations alongside engaging case studies drawn from the authors’ experiences working with local governments. These case studies illustrate the practical applications of the book’s strategies, making it both informative and accessible for readers seeking actionable guidance. Readers will benefit from a blend of academic research, real-world examples, and practical solutions tailored to the complexities of local government.

Making Local Government Sustainable serves as a foundational text for scholars, policymakers, and regulators interested in sustainable local government. Academics will find it valuable as a rigorous, well-researched resource filling a crucial gap in existing literature on local government sustainability. Additionally, its unique combination of practical experience and rigorous scholarly content make it an ideal reference for academic courses in public administration.

Joseph Drew is recently retired and now adjunct Professor of Economics at the University of New England. His principal research interests are government financial sustainability, performance monitoring, natural law philosophy, and theories of public administration. He has consulted for numerous local governments, state governments, and national governments in Australia and abroad. In addition, Professor Drew is the author of over one hundred scholarly works and six books including: ‘Reforming Local Government’ (2020), ‘Saving Local Government’ (2022), ‘Natural Law & Government’ (2022), ‘Selling Public Policy’ (2023) and ‘Creating Human Value: A ‘New’ Public Management Theory’ (2025).

Masato Miyazaki is Professor of Local Public Finance at Saitama University. He is one of the foremost local finance scholars currently employed in Japan, and has published two very influential books (in Japanese) on pressing problems facing the nation: The Political Economy of the Behaviour of Local Governments, and Regional Decline. He has also consulted for local governments with Professor Drew in Australia, and is a key advisor to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as well as the National Association of Towns and Villages.