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Local Officials (local + official)
Selected AbstractsInternational Labour Migrants' Return to Meiji-era Yamaguchi and Hiroshima: Economic and Social EffectsINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 3 2008Jonathan Dresner International labour migration from Meiji era (1868,1912) Japan was intensely concentrated: over 60 per cent of the 29,000 participants in the government-managed Hawai'i emigration programme (kan'yaku imin, 1885,1894) came from seven coastal counties around the Hiroshima-Yamaguchi prefectural border in southwest Japan. Almost half of the emigrants became long-term settlers instead of returning to their hometowns, but this paper examines what happened to returning emigrants and to their home communities. Since the migration was primarily economic in nature, the effect of migrant earnings was carefully monitored and is frequently cited by scholars. Surveys showed high rates of debt repayment and savings, and improved living conditions, but investment and entrepreneurship were limited. High-emigration regions rarely became economic centers of any importance. Less carefully studied are non-economic effects, partially because the labour programme was structured to minimize contact with Hawaiian or Caucasian culture, and thus returnees had little cultural experience to transfer to their hometowns. Local officials in Yamaguchi seemed proud of the lack of social change. Even long-term sojourners, who returned due to family needs after a decade or more overseas, exhibited no readjustment difficulties. Returnees, particularly in Yamaguchi, sometimes moved on to Japanese colonial territories, creating multilateral and complex relationships with overseas communities. This sojourning migration, like contemporary analogs, was a powerful form of poverty relief in the midst of dislocating globalization, but did not produce a rise in entrepreneurship or a Westernization of local culture. Because this sojourning migration was structurally similar to our modern-day patterns, it provides evidence of the longevity of those patterns and the possible long-term effects, and raises questions about our expectations for migration policy. Retour des travailleurs migrants internationaux de l'ère Meiji à Yamaguchi et Hiroshima: effets économiques et sociaux Au Japon, la migration internationale de main-d',uvre de l'ère Meiji (1868,1912) a été très concentrée: plus de soixante pour cent des 29 000 participants au programme gouvernemental d'émigration à destination d'Hawaï (kan'yaku imin, 1885-1894) venaient de sept régions côtières proches de la limite entre les préfectures d'Hiroshima et de Yamaguchi dans le Sud-Ouest du Japon. Sachant que la moitié des émigrants sont devenus des résidents de longue durée et ne sont pas rentrés dans leur communauté d'origine, le présent document s'intéresse à ceux qui ont fait le choix inverse. Etant donné que cette migration était principalement de nature économique, les effets des gains des migrants ont étéétudiés avec attention et sont souvent cités par les chercheurs. Si des enquêtes ont révélé des taux importants de remboursement de dettes et d'épargne, ainsi qu'un niveau de vie en hausse, les investissements et la création d'entreprises, en revanche, sont restés limités. On a rarement vu des régions à fort taux d'émigration devenir des centres économiques d'importance. Les effets non économiques ont été moins étudiés, en partie parce que ce programme de main-d',uvre était structuré de façon à réduire le plus possible les contacts avec la culture hawaïenne ou caucasienne, ce qui fait que les rapatriés n'avaient guère d'acquis culturels exogènes à transmettre. Les responsables locaux de Yamaguchi semblaient d'ailleurs se réjouir de l'absence de changements sociaux. Même les résidents de longue durée, qui étaient rentrés pour raisons familiales au bout d'au moins une décennie à l'étranger, ne montraient aucune difficultéà se réadapter. Les rapatriés, en particulier à Yamaguchi, ont parfois déménagé vers les territoires coloniaux japonais, créant des relations multilatérales complexes avec les communautés de l'outre-mer. Cette migration temporaire, comme les mouvements analogues à la même époque, était une formidable façon de réduire la pauvreté dans un contexte de bouleversement mondial, mais elle n'a pas renforcé l'esprit d'entreprise ni conduit à une occidentalisation de la culture locale. Comme cette migration temporaire était structurellement semblable à nos modèles contemporains, elle témoigne de la longue durée de vie de ces modèles et de leurs effets possibles à long terme, et soulève des questions quant à nos attentes en matière de politique migratoire. Retorno a los trabajadores migrantes internacionales a la era Meiji en Yamaguchi e Hiroshima: Efectos socioeconómicos La migración laboral internacional en la era Meiji del Japón (1868,1912) era sumamente concentrada: más del 60 por ciento de los 29.000 participantes en el programa de emigración Hawai'i (kan'yaku imin, 1885-1894) administrado por el Gobierno, provenía de varios condados costeros en torno a la frontera prefectural entre Hiroshima-Yamaguchi en el sudeste del Japón. Casi la mitad de los emigrantes residía en albergues semipermanentes y no retornaban a sus lugares de origen. Ahora bien, en este artículo se examina lo ocurrido con los migrantes que retornaron y con las comunidades de retorno. Habida cuenta que la migración era mayormente de carácter económico, el efecto de los ingresos de los migrantes se siguió de cerca y, frecuentemente, ha sido citado por los estudiosos en la materia. Las encuestas demuestran elevadas tasas de reembolso de deudas y de ahorro, así como un mejoramiento de las condiciones de vida, pero también apuntan a limitadas inversiones o empresas. Las regiones de alta emigración rara vez se convirtieron en centros de importancia económica. No se ha estudiado en detalle los efectos extra económicos, en parte porque el programa de migración laboral estaba estructurado para minimizar el contacto con la cultura hawaiana o caucasiana, por lo cual las personas que retornaban tenían poca experiencia cultural que aportar a sus lugares de origen. Los funcionarios locales en Yamaguchi se enorgullecían de la falta de intercambio social. Incluso aquéllos residentes de larga duración que retornaron debido a cuestiones familiares tras una década o más en ultramar, no presentaron ninguna dificultad en readaptarse. Las personas que retornaron, particularmente a Yamaguchi, se desplazaron a veces a territorios coloniales japoneses, estableciendo complejas relaciones multilaterales con comunidades en ultramar. La migración de carácter permanente, al igual que sus análogos contemporáneos, era un sólido medio de aliviar la pobreza en medio de una globalización perturbadora, pero no dio lugar a un incremento empresarial o a una occidentalización de la cultura local. La similitud estructural de la migración de larga duración con nuestros patrones de hoy en día, aporta pruebas de la longevidad de los mismos, de los posibles efectos a largo plazo de dichos patrones y plantea una serie de preguntas sobre las expectativas en cuanto a las políticas migratorias. [source] Folcwin of Rankweil: the world of a Carolingian local officialEARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 1 2005Katherine Bullimore This article examines charters from the St Gall archive which are valuable for the light they throw on the secular society of the settlement of Rankweil in Rhaetia and the surrounding area. The centrepiece is the rare collection of early ninth-century grants and sales made to the centenarius Folcwin and the article uses these and other related documents to examine the workings of Carolingian local society, the activities of local officials, and the patterns of landholding and transfer amongst secular individuals of relatively modest standing. [source] To whom, and for whom, must I respond?GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2002Negotiating responsibility during the last years of East German state socialism This paper reconsiders the practice of responsibility during the last years of East German state socialism. It treats the matter of responsibility as a kind of dialogue, attending to the various ways in which people were called upon to respond to and account for their actions and those of others across a range of circumstances and predicaments. It addresses several basic questions, among them: What did the ordinary practice of responsibility look like in the East? How did this requirement to respond to and for others affect the arrangements of ordinary living? More specifically, how did the practice of responsibility work out geographically? The approach taken here is both practical and analytic. It attends to the practical and constitutive aspects of dilemmas of responsibility across a range of situations. It is also historical and ethnographic, based on the city and district of Rostock, and drawing upon a range of primary source materials, from security reports to interviews to sermons delivered during the 1980s. The paper shows some of the ways in which the practice of responsibility played itself out in relation to place. For example, residents themselves invoked a rhetoric of responsibility, criticizing local officials for being unresponsive or indifferent to their concerns. Others found ways to generate ambiguity about how the rules of the state were to be applied in particular circumstances. Finally, some residents simply refused to socialize and otherwise assume responsibility for certain others both at work and at home. [source] Immigration as Local Politics: Re-Bordering Immigration and Multiculturalism through Deterrence and IncapacitationINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2009LIETTE GILBERT Small town governments in North America have, in recent years, posed the most aggressive challenge to national immigration policy and multiculturalism. Immigration-related municipal ordinances were introduced by local officials to defend the rights of local residents from the adverse effects of (unauthorized) immigration. Municipal measures proposed to control im/migrants not only present a constitutional challenge to the federal pre-emption in matters of immigration law (which ineptitude they purport to redress), they expand on what Didier Bigo called a ,governmentality of unease', where migration is increasingly rationalized as a security problem. Municipal measures are re-bordering the inclusion/exclusion of (unauthorized) migrants by expanding the territorial and political rationality of immigration control from the border to the interior, and by imposing and dispersing new mechanisms of control into the everyday spaces and practices of im/migrants regarded as ,illegal' and undesirable. This article examines two immigration-related municipal measures (Hazleton, PA and Hérouxville, QC) which impose a logic of immigration control and identity protection through deterrence and incapacitation strategies, and thus erode civil rights of im/migrants. Résumé Certaines petites municipalités nord-américaines ont récemment bousculé les politiques d'immigration nationales et le multiculturalisme. Les autorités locales en question ont fait voter des arrêtés municipaux liés à l'immigration afin de défendre les droits de leurs concitoyens contre les perceptions néfastes de l'immigration (irrégulière). Tout en représentant un défi constitutionnel à l'égard de la préemption fédérale en matière de législation sur l'immigration (dont l'inadéquation est censée être corrigée), les propositions municipales de contrôler les (im)migrants prolongent ce que Didier Bigo a appelé une ,gouvernementalité du malaise' qui voit de plus en plus la migration comme un problème de sécurité. Les mesures municipales redessinent les limites de l'inclusion-exclusion des migrants (irréguliers) en amenant, de la frontière jusqu'à l'intérieur, la logique territoriale et politique propre au contrôle de l'immigration, tout en imposant et en diffusant de nouveaux mécanismes de contrôle dans les pratiques et espaces quotidiens des (im)migrants jugés ,illégaux' et indésirables. L'article étudie deux mesures municipales liées à l'immigration (à Hazleton en Pennsylvanie et à Hérouxville au Québec), lesquelles dictent une logique de contrôle de l'immigration et de protection identitaire au travers de stratégies de dissuasion et de création d'incapacités; ce faisant, ces dispositions amoindrissent les droits civils des (im)migrants. [source] The role of county-based funders in sustaining nonprofits within rural and urbanized countiesNONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 3 2003Karl Besel Social service nonprofit organizations in the United States originally relied on private donations and charitable events to sustain their operations. Using case studies, this article examines the role played by local officials in the thirty-year survival of certain Indiana Youth Services Bureaus (YSBs) and highlights the salient factors that influenced the viability of some nonprofit organizations over the others. [source] Corruption's Effect on Business Venturing Within the United StatesAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 5 2009David T. Mitchell In developing countries with high levels of corruption, people are often forced into small-business venturing or survivalist entrepreneurship because larger, more efficient firms do not exist. In developed countries, however, low corruption means that people choose entrepreneurship as a better means of innovating. In this article we use federal convictions of state and local officials and the Small Business Administration's firm formation data to test whether corruption within the United States forces some people into business venturing. We find that business venturing within the United States is caused in part by corruption. [source] Governing by goals and numbers: A case study in the use of performance measurement to build state capacity in ChinaPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2009Jie Gao Abstract This article examines why performance measurement, a tool adopted by western countries chiefly to improve government services, has been designed and implemented as an instrument for building state capacity and for ensuring policy compliance in China. Under China's performance measurement system, the central government translates its macro reform goals into specific policy objectives, which it then assigns downwards through the administrative hierarchy. Local governments at the county level convert the policy objectives allocated to them into a variety of prioritised performance targets for local officials to achieve. Using the experience of an inland Chinese county as a case study, this article argues that performance measurement accrues significant political benefits to its users. It forces local Chinese officials to concentrate their efforts on realising the policy priorities set by the higher-level authorities. However, the way that performance measurement is conducted,governing by goals and numbers,does not address the substantial governance issues and fundamental social and political tensions that exist in Chinese society. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Service Quality and Benchmarking the Performance of Municipal ServicesPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2004David H. Folz How can local officials select benchmarking partners whose best practices have the most potential for applicability and success in improving service performance? This study suggests the process for selecting the most appropriate benchmarking partners and for making fair performance comparisons will be advanced if local officials initially address the issue of what level of input service quality level is desired or can be provided. Using data collected from a national survey, the study presents a framework for measuring service quality for municipal solid waste recycling programs. It examines the connection between input service quality and service outcomes and describes the results of analyses of the contextual factors and best practices that distinguish the top recycling performers and potential benchmarking partners in each service-quality class. The study suggests a model for how local officials can use this type of information to select an appropriate benchmarking partner. The study shows that a quality-of-service framework for municipal services can advance local decision making about what citizens and stakeholders expect and will support in terms of input service quality. It also can help local officials identify benchmarking partners that provide a service at the desired level of quality. [source] American Federalism and the Search for Models of ManagementPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 6 2001Robert Agranoff Changes in the United States federal system mean that managers must operate by taking into account multiple interacting governments and nongovernmental organizations; dealing with numerous programs emanating from Washington and state capitols; and engaging in multiple intergovernmental transactions with an expanding number of intergovernmental instruments. Four models of management within this changing system are identified. The top-down model emphasizes executive-branch control and is embedded in enforcement and exchange related to the laws, regulations, funding rules, program standards, and guidelines associated with federal/state grant, procurement, and regulation programs. The donor-recipient model emphasizes mutual dependence or shared program administration, where two-party bargaining or reciprocal interactions among government officials is the norm. The jurisdiction-based model is defined by the initiated actions of local officials and managers who seek out program adjustments and other actors and resources to serve the strategic aims of their governments. The network model highlights the actions of multiple interdependent government and nongovernmental organizations pursuing joint action and intergovernmental adjustment. Although the first two models are long-standing and the latter two are emergent, all appear to be alive and well on the intergovernmental scene, posing complex challenges for public managers. [source] An Evaluation of Alternative Tax and Expenditure Limitation Policies on Kansas Local GovernmentsPUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 2 2009JOB D. SPRINGER Cross-sectional time series data in a partial adjustment model are used to examine county government fiscal behavior under a "hard" tax and expenditure limitation policy, an aggregate property tax levy limit, versus a "soft" limit under Truth in Taxation in Kansas. Results indicate that under the aggregate levy limit, per capita property taxes, own-source revenues and own-source expenditures were significantly higher than under the Truth in Taxation policy where local officials face many fewer restrictions on their ability to raise the levy. [source] Taxes, Time, and Support for SecurityPUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 2 2008AMY K. DONAHUE New technologies have been developed in response to terrorism. These present problems for local officials: implementing technologies will be expensive, and no technologies exist that can be used to gauge demand. We apply contingent valuation methodologies to determine support for additional taxes to pay for new terrorism-related technologies and services. We present findings from a national survey about people's attitudes toward terrorism prevention and response. We find that respondents generally support new services and technologies and local tax increases to pay for them. We also find that respondents are willing to pay more if programs have everyday uses that would enhance public safety, but are less supportive as inconveniences increase. [source] When Classic Ethnographic Work Is Made Impossible: The Human Politics of Research in IndiaANTHROPOLOGY & HUMANISM, Issue 2 2009Pnina Motzafi-Haller SUMMARY In this personal account, I describe the first days of research I begun in Rajasthan, in India in the winter of 2008. This graphic narrative of my encounters with my research interlocutors includes not only what I learned from my research subjects, a group of multiply marginalized people known as the Banjara. It also depicts my conversations with academic colleagues and assistants, local officials, and translators. It describes the human politics that had, in fact, blocked my ability to carry out classical ethnographic research work that I was so intent on carrying out and offers the readers a look into the scene that is often excluded from ethnographic reports. I propose that these encounters are part and parcel of the learning process in a new setting. I argue that a detailed exploration of my own position in the field,one that exposes the confusion, the ignorance, the struggles, the affection, and the dislike I develop toward a range of people I met in these first days,is necessary for writing in a humanistic way about the process through which we learn what we claim we know. Through this reflexive article, I offer a model for anthropological writing that is intellectually engaging, politically aware, and humane. [source] | |||||||||||||