			Home About us Contact

Municipal Governments (municipal + government)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	46%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	30%
Medical Sciences	11%

Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences

General & Introductory Geography	15%

Selected Abstracts

Public Organizations in an Emergency: The 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and Municipal Government

JOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2000
Nobuyuki Hashimoto
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit one of the major metropolitan areas of Japan at 5:46 am on 17 January 1995. This paper examines the behaviour of public organizations during this event in four municipal governments. Opening and managing shelters, reception of relief goods and cooperation with volunteers are, especially, studied in detail. Some of the programmes implemented by the national government and Hyogo prefectural government are also studied. Based on these studies, characteristics of the organizations' responses during the emergency are analyzed. It is argued that the structure of organizations or the disaster response programmes are formulated or changed by using more stable structures or procedures. [source]

Constitutional Tax and Expenditure Limitation in Colorado: The Impact on Municipal Governments

PUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 3 2000
Tom Rown
Tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) have become a pervasive influence on local government fiscal affairs. Explanations for the spread of TELs suggest that voters thought local government was growing more than needed. Thus, TELs were intended to constrain growth and reduce the size of local governments. This article's purpose was to determine the impact of two separate kinds of TELs, one a property tax measure, and the other a comprehensive revenue and expenditure limit, upon the growth of municipal governments in Colorado. Using a panel data set on municipal budgets (1975,1996), the article demonstrates three major points: 1) the effectiveness of a TEL in achieving reductions in local government revenue and spending growth depends upon the nature of the TEL; 2) the comprehensive TEL did effectively constrain growth and reduce local government reliance on the property tax, despite the local options for exemption; and 3) TELs do not have uniform impacts among governments of different population. [source]

PERI-URBAN AGROFORESTRY IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON,

GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 2 2000
VANESSA A. V. SLINGER
ABSTRACT. Together, urbanization and the search for sustainable development present a dilemma in the Brazilian Amazon: how to accommodate an expanding urban population while creating and maintaining sustainable production systems that feed the people and manage the forest. A unique peri-urban agroforestry project, implemented by a municipal government in western Amazonia and concerned with a citywide influx of rural agriculturalists and former forest-dwelling extractive producers, is examined as a source of food and self-determination. Peri-urban agroforestry seems to be a viable option for other Amazonian cities that are experiencing increasing urbanization and its associated problems. [source]

Serving two organizations: Exploring the employment relationship of contracted employees

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2006
Jacqueline A-M Coyle-Shapiro
Although growth has occurred in contract employment arrangements both in the public and private sectors, scant research has been conducted on the organizations and employees affected by these arrangements. This study examines the employment relationship of long-term contracted employees using a social exchange framework. Specifically, we examine the effects of employee perceptions of organizational support from contracting and client organizations on their (a) affective commitment to each organization and (b) service-oriented citizenship behavior. We also examine whether felt obligation toward each organization mediates this relationship. Our sample consists of 99 long-term contracted employees working for four contracting organizations that provide services to the public on behalf of a municipal government. Results indicate that the antecedents of affective commitment are similar for the client and contracting organization. Employee perceptions of client organizational supportiveness were positively related to felt obligation and commitment to the client organization. Client felt obligation mediated the effects of client perceived organizational support (POS) on the participation dimension of citizenship behavior. Our study provides additional support for the generalizability of social exchange processes to nontraditional employment relationships. Implications for managing long-term contracted employees are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Expectation of empowerment as a determinant of citizen participation in waste management planning1,2

JAPANESE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2009
HIROE MAEDA
Abstract:, The study investigated the determinants of citizen participation in the development of a waste management plan. It was hypothesized that people would decide whether or not to participate in the planning based on the expectation of empowerment to be gained by their participation, not on the general evaluation of citizen participation. Four hundred and twenty-four volunteers responded to a self-report mailed survey conducted in August 2001 in Nisshin City. Nisshin City was selected as a city where the municipal government was starting to develop a basic plan for waste reduction and recycling. Major findings from the survey were: (a) the direct social benefits (i.e., making a better plan by citizen participation) were the main determinant of the general evaluation of citizen participation; and (b) expectation of personal empowerment (i.e., sense of self-efficacy and solidarity) was the main determinant of behavioral intention to citizen participation. [source]

Assembling the "Empire of Morality": State Building Strategies in Catholic Ecuador, 1861,1875

JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2001
Derek Williams
This article studies the efforts of the Ecuadorian government between 1861 and 1875 to construct a "truly catholic nation". It examines the implementation and engagement of centralized initiatives of morality and religiosity, and reflects on its implications for the repositioning of state-society boundaries. Specifically, it considers the government's efforts after 1869 to centrally coordinate the institutions of municipal government and Church, and to redeploy them for national moralizing ends. It assesses the substantial achievements and limits of this model for strengthening state power and for disseminating "national" meanings of citizenship and progress. [source]

New-build gentrification in Central Shanghai: demographic changes and socioeconomic implications

POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 5 2010
Shenjing He
Abstract In Shanghai, globalised urban images and a well-functioning accumulation regime are enthusiastically sought after by urban policy, and explicitly promoted as a blueprint for a civilised city life. The city is celebrating its thriving neo-liberal urbanism by implementing enormous new-build gentrification, mostly in the form of demolition,rebuild development involving direct displacement of residents and landscapes. This study aims to understand demographic changes and the socioeconomic consequences of new-build gentrification in central Shanghai. The paper first examines demographic changes between 1990 and 2000 in central Shanghai, i.e. the changing distribution of potential gentrifiers and displacees. It then looks into two cases of new-build gentrification projects in central Shanghai, to compare residents' socioeconomic profiles in old neighbourhoods and new-build areas. This study also examines the impacts of gentrification on displacees' quality of life and socioeconomic prospects. Because the enlarging middle class and the pursuit of wealth-induced growth by the municipal government are turning the central city into a hotspot of gentrification, inequalities in housing and socioeconomic prospects are being produced and intensified in the metropolitan area. This study thus emphasises that critical perspectives in gentrification research are valuable and indispensable. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

RURAL DOCTORS, SATISFACTION IN JAPAN: A NATIONWIDE SURVEY

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2004
Masatoshi Matsumoto
Objectives: The purpose of this paper was to discover to what degree Japanese rural doctors are satisfied with various aspects of their jobs and lives, and to find out whether they intend to continue their rural careers. Design: Nationwide postal survey Setting: Public clinics or hospitals in municipalities that are authorised as ,rural' by the national government. Subjects: A total of 4896 doctors working for public clinics or hospitals. Interventions: Self-evaluation questionnaires were mailed. The rural doctors were asked to evaluate their satisfaction with 19 items related to their job conditions and 10 items concerning life conditions, using a four-point scale. They also were asked to evaluate their intent to stay in rural practice until retirement. Results: The response rate was 64%. Overall, rural doctors were satisfied with both their work and life conditions. However, only 27% of respondents hoped to continue rural practice beyond the usual age of retirement. Among job-related items, continuing medical education and interactions with municipal governments were rated as least satisfactory. Among lifestyle-related items, duration of holidays and workload were unsatisfactory. Subgroup analysis revealed male doctors showed greater intent to stay in rural practice. Doctors aged > 50 years were more satisfied with most aspects of their job and lifestyle than younger doctors. A strong correlation was found between the degree of intent to stay and several items such as interactions with municipal government, human interactions salary and job fulfilment. Conclusions: Strategies, based on the results of this survey, should be implemented. Particularly in Japan, positive interaction between doctors and municipal governments is crucial. [source]

An environmental evaluation of household garbage processors

ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATIONS IN JAPAN, Issue 7 2010
Kazuhito Haruki
Abstract The amount of garbage emitted from households and industries has been constantly increasing in recent years, and its treatment cost has been a financial burden to municipal governments in Japan. Many municipal governments recommend that their citizens purchase household garbage processors in order to reduce the volume of garbage transferred to and incinerated at their facilities. Actually, 1535 municipal governments subsidize their citizens' purchase of electrical garbage processors and/or compost containers. These subsidies should be assessed from various points of view, such as the costs and benefits to municipal governments and citizens, and also global or local environmental loads. An environmental planning department of a city office sent questionnaires to its residents to investigate the utilization of the subsidized devices. An environmental organization of citizens supported the department with design of the questionnaire form and analysis of the collected questionnaire data. In this paper, the processes of designing the form and analyzing the data are explained, and then an evaluation of the subsidy is presented. The conclusions are as follows: Electrical garbage processors would be beneficial for dealing with local environmental problems such as lack of a final landfill site. However, the processors will increase CO2 emissions unless their electrical consumption efficiency can be improved. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 93(7): 42,52, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10285 [source]

Innovation and Innovators Inside Government: From Institutions to Networks

GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2007
MARK CONSIDINE
Innovation and innovators inhabit an institutional space, which is partially defined by formal positions and partially by informal networks. This article investigates the role of politicians and bureaucrats in fostering innovation inside government and provides an empirical explanation of who the innovators are, whether this is mostly an attribute of position or role, or mostly an effect of certain forms of networking. The study uses original data collected from 11 municipal governments in Australia in order to define and describe the normative underpinnings of innovation inside government and to show the importance of advice and strategic information networks among politicians and senior bureaucrats (n = 947). Social network analysis is combined with conventional statistical analysis in order to demonstrate the comparative importance of networks in explaining who innovates. [source]

Implementation from Above: The Ecology of Power in Sweden's Environmental Governance

GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2001
Lennart J. Lundqvist
This paper seeks to assess the tenability of Rhodes' view of the "new governance" as "governing without government," as well as the validity of Pierre and Peters' assertions that the state is still at the center of structures and processes of governance. The case used for analysis is Sweden's ecological modernization and the implementation of Local Investment Programs for Sustainable Development. This case provides a crucial test of the contradictory propositions of Rhodes and Pierre and Peters. Contrary to Rhodes' assertions, central government held the initiative in the process of implementing Sweden's ecological modernization. In line with the arrguments of Pierre and Peters central government created new structures and processes of governance to keep its initiative over constitutionally independent expert agencies and municipal governments,exactly those actors that, in Rhodes' view, could make central governmental steering well nigh impossible. As the paper illustrates, what government gains in direct control over the process, it may well lose in terms of the end results. The case of "new governance" analyzed here thus directs attention to the critical interplay between structure, process, and end results, and to government's role in governance. [source]

Managed health care plans in Southern United States municipalities: empirical evidence on choice of plan

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2005
Christopher G. Reddick
Abstract This study examines factors that influence choice of Southern municipal government health care plans in the United States. Using survey data, this article specifically examines the managed care offerings of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO), Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO) and Point of Service (POS) plans. Some of the more interesting empirical results indicate that HMO plans are associated more with employee satisfaction; PPO plans are associated with cost containment; and POS plans are more likely to provide health care benefits to part-time employees. Empirical evidence also indicates that employee satisfaction is increased when there is a greater choice of managed care plans available to municipal governments. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Public Organizations in an Emergency: The 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and Municipal Government

Offering Incentives for New Development: The Role of City Social Status, Politics, and Local Growth Experiences

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2002
Paul G. Lewis
The propensity of municipal governments to offer incentives for new development is empirically examined, drawing upon both the literature on local economic development policy and studies of local residential restrictions. The data are from a 1998 mail survey of city managers in California in which officials assessed the likelihood that their local governments would offer financial assistance or zoning changes to various types of new business and residential land uses in their communities. Multivariate analysis indicates that local conditions resulting from past growth patterns,commuting times, job/population balance, and housing affordability,play an important role in shaping respondents' assessments as to whether their cities are likely to grant incentives. Such factors deserve an important role in explaining local government growth orientations, alongside measures of community status, political institutions, and the strength of progrowth coalitions. [source]

Local Response to the Global Challenge: Comparing Local Economic Development Policies in a Regional Context

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2000
Joanne Wolfson
This article reports on a study that examined and compared the responses of six Greater Toronto Area (GTA) municipalities (two central, four suburban) to the challenges of global economic change. The study was carried out in a context characterized by the transfer to municipal governments of both administrative and financial responsibilities for local services by the government of the Province of Ontario. It found a strong tendency for the municipalities to compete with each other for economic advantage, despite efforts to convince them of the need for a cooperative region-wide approach. Suburban governments relied principally on strategies to draw businesses away from the core, and this type of activity seemed likely to increase because of the municipalities' increased dependence on local property taxes. Nonetheless, study findings suggested several ways in which regional organizations or senior governments might help to strengthen regional economies without expecting municipal governments to surrender control over economic development policy. [source]

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's program to make municipal governments more responsive to their citizens

NATIONAL CIVIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2008
Ted Greenwood
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

Despite the Northern Territories: Hokkaido's Courting of the Russian Far East

PACIFIC FOCUS, Issue 1 2003
Tsuneo Akaha
Recent studies of Japan's postwar policy toward Russia have persuasively argued that the intrinsic (symbolic and psychological) value rather than the instrumental (economic or strategic) value that the Northern Territories (Southern Kuriles) represents to Japan is the most important obstacle to the normalization of relations between the two countries. Theoretically, there are three ways in which the intrinsic value of the disputed islands might be substantially depreciated and the instrumental value of closer bilateral ties appreciated: (1) major concessions from Russia, which are highly unlikely, (2) the emergence of a security or strategic of common concern to Tokyo and Moscow prompting the two sides to offer mutual concessions on the territorial issue or indefinitely postpone its resolution, and (3) a substantial expansion of economic, cultural, and social ties between the Japanese and the Russians, dramatically improving Japanese attitudes toward Russia. This study explores the third possibility, with a particular focus on developments at the subnational level, the level that has been largely ignored by students of Russian-Japanese relations. Namely, the study examines relations between Hokkaido and the Russian Far East since the 1960s and asks: Do the same logic and dynamic that operate at the national level apply at the regional level? Does the intrinsic importance of the territorial dispute prevail over considerations of economic and other tangible values at the subnational level as it does at the national level? The paper concludes that while Hokkaido has not deviated from the Japanese government,s official position on the territorial issue,that all the islands belong to Japan, the dispute has not prevented the provincial administration, municipal governments, or nongovernmental organizations in Hokkaido from launching and sustaining initiatives to cement closer ties with their northern neighbors, with growing economic and human ties playing important roles in the process. [source]

Local government decision-making,citizen participation and local accountability: some evidence from Kenya and Uganda

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2003
Nick Devas
The current fashion for decentralisation is built on the assumption that it will result in decisions that reflect local needs and priorities. Yet representative democracy, through periodic elections, is a crude mechanism for establishing these needs and priorities. Most local government systems offer few other opportunities for citizens to participate, particularly for the poor, and few mechanisms of accountability. This article reviews the literature relating local level decision-making, citizen participation and accountability. It then presents the findings of a study of decision-making about the use of resources in a sample of municipal governments in Kenya and Uganda. Local governments in Kenya have traditionally offered minimal scope for citizen participation or accountability, but this is beginning to change, mainly as a result of performance conditions applied through the recently introduced Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF), together with an increasingly active civil society. In Uganda, which has undergone a radical decentralisation, there is much greater scope for citizen participation at the local level but there are still many of the same problems of local accountability as in Kenya. The article reviews some of the examples of, and reasons for, good (and bad) practice. It concludes that factors like committed local leadership, central monitoring of performance, articulate civil society organisations and the availability of information are critical. But even with these, there is no guarantee that decentralised decision-making will be inclusive of the poor. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Employment Laws and the Public Sector Employer: Lessons to Be Learned from a Review of Lawsuits Filed against Local Governments

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 1 2009
P. Edward French
Numerous aspects of the day-to-day operations of local governments are subject to legal scrutiny; public managers and officials must be keenly aware of the legal rights and protections that extend to both citizens and employees of local governments. This research evaluates several areas of concern in the human resource administration of municipal governments with respect to the management of public employees within the protections set forth by the legislative and judicial branches of the federal government. Sample cases filed from 2000 to 2007 against local governments in Tennessee involving Title VII violations, retaliation, hostile work environment, Family and Medical Leave Act violations, and other employee grievances are detailed. The intent of this analysis is to highlight many of the laws and legal principles that relate to municipal human resources management and to provide scholars and practitioners with a brief overview of the liabilities that may arise from the employment relationship between local governments and their employees. [source]

Diversifying Municipal Government Revenue Structures: Fiscal Illusion or Instability?

PUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 1 2009
DEBORAH A. CARROLL
This paper examines (1) whether revenue diversification leads to greater instability as represented by revenue volatility, and (2) whether revenue complexity produces fiscal illusion as represented by increased public expenditures. These questions are answered by analyzing panel data on municipal governments between 1970 and 2002. The findings suggest that fiscal illusion does not occur among municipal governments, but revenue diversification does influence levels of volatility. However, the way in which municipalities diversify is important for achieving revenue stability. When diversification is considered in isolation, both tax and nontax diversification reduce revenue volatility. When diversification and complexity are considered simultaneously, the statistical effect of nontax diversification disappears. But, when a tax revenue structure is both diversified and complex, the likely outcome is greater revenue volatility rather than stability. [source]

Constitutional Tax and Expenditure Limitation in Colorado: The Impact on Municipal Governments

Divisor Methods for Sequential Portfolio Allocation in Multi-Party Executive Bodies: Evidence from Northern Ireland and Denmark

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2005
Brendan O'Leary
Some proportional representation (PR) rules can also be used to specify the sequence in which each party in a parliament or each member in a multiparty governing coalition is given its choice about (unique) desired resources, e.g., "indivisible goods" such as cabinet ministries or executive positions, thus providing an algorithmic method for determining "fair" allocations. Divisor rule sequencing using the d'Hondt method was recently used to determine the ten cabinet positions in the Northern Ireland Executive Committee created under the 1998 Belfast ("Good Friday") Agreement; and such sequential allocation procedures have been used in some Danish municipal governments, and for determination of committee chairs in the European parliament. Here we examine in some detail the procedures used in Northern Ireland and Denmark, with a focus on special features such as the option in Denmark to form post-election alliances. [source]

Building knowledge city in transformation era: Knowledge-based urban development in Beijing in the context of globalisation and decentralisation

ASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 1 2010
Pengjun Zhao
Abstract This study examines knowledge-based urban development in Beijing with the objective of revealing the impact of the ,synergetic' forces of globalisation and local government intervention on knowledge-based urban development in the context of the coexisting processes of globalisation and decentralisation. The findings in this paper show that due to the rapid growth of the cultural industry sector, knowledge-based urban development has created various kinds of ,cultural industry clustered areas', which were recently promoted by the 2008 Olympic Games. ,Synergetic' global and local forces are leading knowledge-based urban development, with the emergence of a local coalition regime in which local government manages local development, considered as ,enterprises' in the decentralisation process, while the State retains a significant influence on knowledge-based urban development. The central and municipal governments tend to emphasise strategies to ,facilitate the climate for growth' rather than the centrally planned control they exerted prior to the 1980s. [source]