ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors aims to classify internal and external factors by the ways in which they affect performance. Efforts to improve the performance of local government are severely hampered by the lack of a framework within which to analyze the factors that affect the process of managing local government. The framework consists of twelve factors that affect the process of management within local governments and therefore affect its performance. Three criteria were used in determining the factors that affect the management process in a local government. The first and most important classification is to designate factors as internal or external: Internal factors are those which exist within the legal, political, and administrative structure of local government; and external factors exist outside this structure. Second, each factor had to have a significant impact on the management process. Third, each factor had to make sense to practitioners as a separate area of study and potential improvement.
