Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> Public Affairs & Administration

Due to state and federally mandated programs, local governments are increasingly resorting to innovative and alternative means of performing their functions because taxpayers are becoming more resistant to tax increases. Certain conditions need to exist for governmental innovation to be possible. This work explores these situations, using case studies in local government to discuss in detail innovative programs in risk management, zoning, stormwater management, public safety, housing, and governmental format.

During the past two decades, one of the most significant political and social changes has been the transfer of urban political leadership from aging ethnic-dominated political machines to coalitions led by blacks in cities such as Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Newark, and New Orleans. Bette Woody's analysis of modern urban government examines the political transformation of the 1970s and 1980s in the context of the failures of machine politics, traditional reforms, and racial policies of the prior two decades. Also discussed is the rise of neighborhood-based political coalitions to...

Completeing a Stewardship describes the process of British disengagement from Malaya and Singapore during the era of Asian nationalism. Heussler adds to previous studies of decolonization and disengagement a new and important perspective: the views and daily work of the members of the Malayan Civil Service who were at the center of affairs until the end of British rule. The book concentrates on the people and events that influenced administrative preparations for independence. The importance of Completing A Stewardship lies in its attention to the British management of preparations for...

Kempe Ronald Hope provides, for the first time, a clear analysis and synthesis of economics and development administration, as well as an appraisal of the problems associated with the application of these concepts in Third World nations. Combining both theory and practice, and providing concrete examples, Hope begins by detailing the evolution of the concept of development from the inter-war years through the 1950s when the expression Third World first emerged, to the 1970s and the present when wholesale technology transfer and other new approaches emphasizing economic independence began...

This study, written by seasoned professionals and academics in the field of information management and public policy, presents a clear exposition of what makes up infostructures, how they are created and used, and how they affect the policy-making process. The only study to address both information management and technology and the policy process itself, it offers a balanced treatment of the numerous resources and activities required to generate and feed information into public sector decision-making.

T]his is much more than a conventional reference guide. The 12 carefully written chapters examine significant issues and contemporary views of many of the basic problems in the field. Topics are approaches to the study of ethics in government, ethical dilemmas and standards for public officials, techniques for incorporating ethical considerations in policy-making, and several substantive problems--professional ethics, the ethical use of quantitative analysis, several forms of corruption, and morality in foreign policy-making. The volume assimilates most of the contemporary literature,...

The immigration problem, which has been debated in the United States for over a century, is not likely to go away--least of all with the numbers of refugees and displaced and impoverished workers continuing to mount worldwide. The current bitterness and legislative stalemate over immigration policy are indications that new approaches to the issue need to be found. Removing himself from the specifics of the current congressional debate, Mark Gibney asks whether we are addressing the right questions and employing the correct criteria under our present admission practices. From a...

This ground-breaking volume offers a theoretical framework from which the theory and practice of ethics in public administration can be guided. Starting with the most prominent literature in the field, it constructs a theoretical foundation for administrative ethics by building on the twin themes of organizational setting and individual administrator. Stressing that the field has failed to take advantage of the philosophical traditions that should be the underpinnings of any study or application of ethics, the volume focuses not only on the current state of public administration, but...

Frances Gottfried offers a thorough-going critique of municipal civil service systems and the principles of meritocracy that underlie them, focusing especially on the social inequities and entrenchment of power that continue to bedevil the public sector. Beginning with an examination of the principles and history of the merit system, the author challenges the assumption that a real meritocracy does in fact exist. She looks at current practices and procedures in civil service, with particular attention to the decision-making process. She explores the role of the rigid credentialling system...

This collection of fifteen original essays examines methods of policy evaluation, performance measurement, fiscal cutback effects, and strategies of economic development in American local government. Each essay addresses, not only techniques of analysis, but also the application of those techniques to actual local government policy problems in areas such as urban development, policing, economic development, citizen satisfaction with services, personnel, and licensing, among others.

"Japan's Civil Service System" is a comprehensive description of the organization, staffing, and actual daily workings of the postwar Japanese government bureaucracy. Written for students of Japanese government, comparative government, and public policy, the book is based on research in both the U.S. and Japan and numerous interviews with Japanese government officials. At a time when the present system is the subject of fierce debate within Japan--between critics who seek to remove Western influence and supporters who cite the system's productivity and efficiency--this systematic study of...

"Voluntarism, Planning, and the State" presents a series of case studies of the planning process in the context of modern American history in the period between World War I and World War II. Each essay draws on the works of leading scholars in the field and attempts to make specific evaluations of broad generalizations about the planning experience in the United States. The studies examine such relevant topics as unemployment reform, labor relations, military peacetime planning, New Deal planning, and the postwar debate over price and wage controls.

Authors Jones and McCaffery provide perspectives on Canadian government actions to manage financial contingency and restraint. Although the primary focus is on provincial government, attention is also paid to the actions of the federal government. The authors begin by presenting a theoretical framework through which government financial restraint management may be evaluated. In the following chapters, criteria derived from this framework are then applied to provincial government financial stress and restraint management actions. They examine the provincial economic base, revenue and...

As a reading of the recent literature indicates, there has been a trend among public policy analysts to disavow the utility of the Western political tradition for understanding contemporary social dilemmas. This edited collection demonstrates that the history of political philosophy actually increases the awareness of the nature of such problems. By employing models of historical understanding, the contributors permit political theory to illuminate the dilemmas underlying modern policy questions and permit historical theorists to model perspectives that are useful in confronting current...

Hardy Wickwar takes a global look at public administration from the perspective of one whose lifetime has spanned most continents and most of a century. His volume investigates what governments do to, for, and with people; how governments treat their lands and the resources on, in, around, and above them; and how governments relate to their citizens through the exercise of power, law, and political judgement. Relating public administration to a country's social structure, law, and history, the volume expounds a European model and then analyzes variants in relation to differences in...