Vol.:(0123456789) Social Indicators Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-019-02063-6 1 3 ORIGINAL RESEARCH Composite Indicator of Social Responsiveness of Local Governments: An Empirical Mapping of the Networked Community Governance Paradigm Aleksandra Maksimovska 1  · Aleksandar Stojkov 1 Accepted: 4 January 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019 Abstract Various local stakeholders with diverse needs seek diferent treatment and actions by their local governments. From the modern perspective of local governance, this article examines whether local governments are sufciently responsive in meeting not only the mandatory responsibilities, but also the rapidly expanding range of societal expectations. This study enriches the existing local governance literature with a novel methodology and a set of indicators for measuring the quality of networked community local governance. The pri- mary goal is to enlighten the local governance theory with a newly designed perspective and to ofer our own innovative quantitative representation. The conclusions are based on theoretical refnements and our own innovative methodology supported by an empirical investigation. Finally, a composite indicator of social responsiveness of local governments is constructed, elaborated and illustrated through a case study. Keywords Networked community governance · Social responsiveness · Local governance · Transparency JEL Classifcation H70 · H75 · H76 · I38 1 Introduction Our understanding of the concept of local governance has considerably evolved over the past three decades. The democratization and decentralization processes worldwide signif- cantly increased the societal expectations from the local governments, creating a stronger pressure for changes and innovations in their practices. Simultaneously, a large body of the theoretical literature on local governance has expressed serious doubts about the rel- evance of the prevailing New Public Management (NPM) paradigm. The key pillars of this * Aleksandar Stojkov a.stojkov@pf.ukim.edu.mk Aleksandra Maksimovska a.maksimovska@pf.ukim.edu.mk 1 Iustinianus Primus Faculty of Law, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Blvd. Goce Delcev 9b, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia