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City Councils (city + council)
Selected AbstractsStatutory health assessments for looked-after children: what do they achieve?CHILD: CARE, HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2003C. M. Hill Abstract Objective To examine the outcomes of statutory health assessment of children looked after by an English City Council. Design Retrospective longitudinal documentary analysis. Setting and participants Health records of all children looked after by Southampton City Council who had attended at least two statutory health assessments within a designated paediatric service from 1996 to 1999. Main variables studied Demographic characteristics of the children; physical and mental health problems identified at assessment and extent to which health recommendations were implemented. Results Twenty-seven boys and 22 girls aged 6 months,15 years were identified who had attended at least two assessments. One-hundred and four physical and mental health needs were identified at care entry requiring further assessment or intervention. More health problems were identified for girls than boys. At care entry 15/49 of the children were not fully immunized. At review, on average 14 months later, recommendations had only been implemented in just over half of children. Conclusions In common with previous studies this work confirms that the statutory health assessment identifies health need and health neglect that may otherwise go unrecognized. Whereas children's needs and problems were diverse, many continued to suffer health neglect in the system of public care designed to help them. In order to be effective, statutory health assessments must be a health promoting rather than disease screening exercise delivered by professionals skilled to address diverse health needs. Crucially, the heath assessment can only succeed as a tool for health advocacy if complementary to and integrated with local authority care and review. [source] Mind the gap: national and local partnership in the Irish public sectorINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 5 2010Michael Doherty ABSTRACT This article uses case study data from a major Irish city council to investigate and explain public sector worker attitudes towards social partnership at local and national level. It is argued that the more sceptical attitudes to workplace partnership reflect structural differences between local and national arrangements, which have enabled public sector employers to use ,social partnership' as a constraint in the implementation process of a pre-determined public sector reform agenda. [source] REVISITING BLACK ELECTORAL SUCCESS: OAKLAND (CA), 40 YEARS LATERJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2009FRÉDÉRICK DOUZET ABSTRACT:,The city of Oakland, California, was one of the case studies Browning, Marshall and Tabb picked in their book,Protest Is not Enough,(1984) as a significant example of successful liberal black-and-white coalitions, leading to strong black incorporation. Yet over the past 40 years, the balance of power has dramatically changed in the city of Oakland. After several decades of experience with African-American mayors and changing demographics, we need to reflect on the adequacy of this paradigm in light of the contemporary situation. The city once governed by a black mayor with a majority black city council in a traditional white progressive-black coalition has now become intrinsically multicultural, leading to the election of former Governor Jerry Brown as a Mayor in 1998. Despite Ron Dellums's election in 2006, the black hold and control over the city seems to be more tenuous and fragile than it was 15 years ago. This article raises the question of the future of black urban political power in cities undergoing demographic and political changes. Our main findings are that black urban power in Oakland is still predominantly coalition-based but involves new coalition partners with the demographic growth and the electoral mobilization of Hispanics and Asians. While the black-led coalition still relies on white progressive support, this support has weakened, mostly because of the broadening of the progressives' agenda. Finally, the black community seems less likely to vote on pure identity grounds and seems increasingly inclined to vote along issues and interests. [source] The Importance of Being Connected.INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 20102005), City Networks, Eurocities (1990, Urban Government: Lyon Abstract The international dimension of cities and their role in inter-urban markets and inter-urban competition are now often studied and analysed from the perspective of public policy, urban planning or geography. Yet few studies highlight the political work that goes on in acquiring this dimension. Focusing on an inter-urban network such as Eurocities sheds light on this work and makes it possible to move away from an analysis of the Europeanization of cities in terms of centre and periphery. In this network, a horizontal form of Europeanization can be observed. The article examines this inter-urban network as an inter-urban configuration. The network is based on relationships between city councils, but due to a sort of cluster effect, it becomes more autonomous and , through resources as well as constraints , influences those relationships, indeed influences urban governance. Résumé La dimension internationale et la place des villes dans le marché et la compétition inter-urbaines sont aujourd'hui des objets bien étudiés à la fois en analyse de l'action publique, en urbanisme ou en géographie. Mais peu de travaux repèrent le travail politique à l',uvre pour acquérir cette dimension. Le détour par un réseau de villes comme Eurocités éclaire ce travail comme il permet de se défaire d'une analyse de l'européanisation des villes en termes de centre et de périphérie. C'est une européanisation horizontale qui est mise au jour à travers ce réseau. Le réseau de villes est ici saisi comme une configuration interurbaine: il repose sur des relations entre municipalités urbaines mais par un effet d'agrégation, le réseau gagne en autonomie et pèse ,à travers des ressources comme des contraintes , sur ces relations voire sur le gouvernement des villes. [source] The South, Medium-Sized Cities, and a New Look at the Determinants of African-American RepresentationPOLITICS & POLICY, Issue 4 2003Peter F. Burns This paper examines the determinants of African-American representation on city councils in medium-sized urban areas to provide greater insight into the strategies African-Americans use to achieve political incorporation and the extent to which traditionally excluded groups have access to elected positions in the United States. I argue that previous studies generate varied conclusions about the determinants of African-American representation on city councils because scholars fail to recognize that minority political strategies may vary based on the relative and absolute size of the minority population. I examine the determinants of African-American representation in medium-sized cities to consider whether African-Americans employ an electoral mobilization strategy when they make up a large percentage of the electorate but lack the large absolute numbers necessary to sustain demand-protest activities. A regression analysis indicates that the percentage of African-Americans in the electorate is the only factor that significantly affects African-American descriptive representation. This finding supports the hypothesis that African-Americans use an electoral strategy when they lack large absolute numbers. This research also confirms Guinier's (1994) claims that African-Americans fail to achieve proportional representation in the current electoral system and suggests that the plurality system comes with high start-up costs for a traditionally excluded group. [source] Models of Municipal Budget Allocation: Empirical Data from Spanish MunicipalitiesPUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 2 2010JOSÉ A. DORTA-VELÁZQUEZ The present work empirically analyzes diverse budgetary theories (incrementalism, garbage can, rational) in municipal cost programs, paying special attention to the utility of financial information in decision making. The sample analyzed corresponds to a set of Spanish city councils in the period 1996,2004, and the econometric methodology used is a dynamic panel data model. The main conclusion reached is that the budgetary allocation of municipal costs does not follow a random path; incrementalism is of particular importance, together with financial information variables. The utility of budgetary indicators is reflected in the fact that municipal managers adopt rational elements, although incrementalism remains the habitual behavior. [source] The New Racial Calculus: Electoral Institutions and Black Representation in Local LegislaturesAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2010Melissa J. Marschall In this study we revisit the question of black representation on city councils and school boards using a novel substantive and methodological approach and longitudinal data for a sample of over 300 boards and councils. Conceptualizing black representation as a two-stage process, we fit Mullahy's hurdle Poisson models to explain whether and to what extent blacks achieve representation in local legislatures. We find that while the size of the black population and electoral arrangements matter more than ever, especially for overcoming the representational hurdle, the extent to which the black population is concentrated is also strongly associated with black council representation. Further, whereas black resources and opportunities to build "rainbow" coalitions with Latinos or liberal whites are marginally if at all related to black legislative representation, we find that legislative size is an underappreciated mechanism by which to increase representation, particularly in at-large systems, and is perhaps the best predictor of moving towards additional representation. [source] Committee mania among city councilsBOARD LEADERSHIP: POLICY GOVERNANCE IN ACTION, Issue 68 2003John Carver [source] | |||||||||||||