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Government Units (government + unit)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

EMAS and its local diffusion in Italy

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2003
Rita Jirillo
Due to the growing awareness among enterprises of the relevance of ,sustainable development', applications of the Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) in Italy are expanding. With the second era of EMAS (EMAS II), this scheme will become a global instrument, enabling Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to master environmental challenges while improving their competitive position. This report intends to demonstrate that area and local agreements between local government units and research centres, such as universities or energy and environmental boards, can simplify and improve the diffusion of EMAS in the country. Reported examples of some small Italian municipalities that have applied EMAS are demonstrations of how government units can increase all citizens' quality of life while taking care of environmental aspects. Since 1993, the year of the first applications of Regulation 1836/93, local government units have understood the important role they can play in this subject. This work illustrates that the development of ISO and EMAS local applications must be based on government's local promotion aimed at encouraging enterprises to voluntarily adopt these instruments for environmental safeguard. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment. [source]

Government & community building: A study of Michigan local governments online

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2002
Allison R. K. Brueckner M.I.S.
Today's policymakers are being called upon to embrace a new way of government. A learning economy requires a smart and responsive government,one that works in partnership with all sectors of society to provide services and support systems that are essential to building strong communities. One of the most important features of the Internet is its ability to connect people with information and with one another. For many this means finding affordable housing, local jobs and dependable daycare. Increasingly local government units are trying to use the Internet, especially the World Wide Web, to provide their citizens with valuable information to enhance the community's quality of life and to increase civic participation. To help these government units to improve their use of the World Wide Web, cyber-state.org is undertaking an initiative to assess each of Michigan's local government Web sites, using a national assessment tool called WAES, , and to provide national benchmarks and models. The poster presentation will address the value of e-government, using the Michigan case study, where it's at and where it's going , current trends and future possibilities. The methodology and results will be shared from this year's report, Michigan's local governments onlne status and their usage. [source]

Balancing Regionalism and Localism: How Institutions and Incentives Shape American Transportation Policy

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2009
Elisabeth R. Gerber
Public policy decisions are increasingly made by regional governance efforts that involve diverse decision makers from multiple government units within a geographic region. These decision-making bodies face competing pressures to represent regional and local interests. We study how decision makers balance preferences for regionalism and localism within metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), the policymaking entities that are responsible for implementing U.S. federal surface transportation policy at the regional level. Our model of regional governance relates variation in regional policy outcomes to the incentives of MPO decision makers and the institutional environments in which they interact. Analyzing data from a sample of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, we find that MPOs dominated by elected officials produce more locally focused policies, holding other factors constant, while MPOs dominated by nonelected public managers produce more regionally oriented policies. Contextual factors, as well as the regional governance institutions themselves, further shape the balance between regionalism and localism. [source]