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"Municipal services United States Public opinion."
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Majoritarian cities : policy making and inequality in urban politics
\"Neil Kraus evaluates both the influence of public opinion on local policy-making and the extent to which public policy addresses economic and social inequalities. Drawing on several years of fieldwork and multiple sources of data, including surveys and polls; initiatives, referenda, and election results; government documents; focus groups; interviews; and a wide assortment of secondary sources, Kraus presents case studies of two Midwestern cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Gary, Indiana. Specifically, he focuses on several major policy decisions in recent decades concerning education, law enforcement, and affordable housing in Minneapolis; and education and riverboat casino development in Gary. Kraus finds that, on these issues, local officials frequently take action that reflects public opinion, yet the resulting policies often fail to meet the needs of the disadvantaged or ameliorate the effects of concentrated poverty. In light of citizens' current attitudes, he concludes that if patterns of inequality are to be more effectively addressed, scholars and policymakers must transform the debate about the causes and effects of inequality in urban and metropolitan settings\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Majoritarian Cities
Neil Kraus evaluates both the influence of public opinion on local policy-making and the extent to which public policy addresses economic and social inequalities. Drawing on several years of fieldwork and multiple sources of data, including surveys and polls; initiatives, referenda, and election results; government documents; focus groups; interviews; and a wide assortment of secondary sources, Kraus presents case studies of two Midwestern cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Gary, Indiana. Specifically, he focuses on several major policy decisions in recent decades concerning education, law enforcement, and affordable housing in Minneapolis; and education and riverboat casino development in Gary.
Kraus finds that, on these issues, local officials frequently take action that reflects public opinion, yet the resulting policies often fail to meet the needs of the disadvantaged or ameliorate the effects of concentrated poverty. In light of citizens' current attitudes, he concludes that if patterns of inequality are to be more effectively addressed, scholars and policymakers must transform the debate about the causes and effects of inequality in urban and metropolitan settings.
eBook
Is willingness to pay for a public good sensitive to the elicitation format?
This study uses actual payments toward the provision of a public good to compare dichotomous choice and payment card formats. The public good in question is the environmental improvement from wind generation of electric power. We find that willingness-to-pay estimates vary with the elicitation format. Based on this result, we argue that elicitation effects found in contingent valuation studies may not be due the hypothetical nature of decision-making, as has been suggested in previous studies. (JEL H41, Q51)
Journal Article
Mapping Patterns of Support for Privatization in the Mass Public: The Case of Michigan
This article examines public attitudes about using for-profit firms or nonprofit organizations to deliver public services in Michigan. Using survey data, it shows how the public reacts to the privatization of various state and local government services. It then considers some dimensions of attitudes toward privatization. Finally, it estimates models that predict support for privatization based upon a range of characteristics of respondents to our survey.
Journal Article
SMOKE-FREE PARKS: A 12-YEAR-OLD MADE IT HAPPEN
This case study examines how a 12-year-old in the City of Grand Terrace, California was able to get the city council to adopt a resolution making city parks smoke-free/tobacco-free zones in his community. Over a three-month period of time, this 12-year-old (with tremendous support from his parents and sister) applied for and received a mini-grant from the Tri-County SOUTH Regional Tobacco-Free Project and implemented \"The Terrace is GRAND with Smoke-Free Parks\" activities. This young man recruited 11 youth and 9 adults, trained them in the basics of tobacco prevention called Tobacco 101, and collected 100 surveys and 809 petition signatures supporting smoke-free parks from residents in Grand Terrace. They also collected trash in their parks and separated it into two groups: tobacco-related trash and all other trash. This 12-year-old met with the mayor of Grand Terrace to ask for support for this issue and scheduled a time to present his group's findings to the city council. On June 22, 2000, the youths presented council members with the tobacco-trash collected, the petition signatures, taped end-to-end, that stretched across the council chambers, and asked the city council to make their parks smoke/tobacco-free. Council members acknowledged the excellent work implemented by these youths, adopted a resolution making all parks (except one senior park) tobacco-free, and agreed to place signage in the parks. On August 24, 2000, the city council presented him with his own \"Tobacco-Free Zone\" sign as an acknowledgment for his hard work in making parks safe places for youths in Grand Terrace.
Journal Article
Initiatives and Government Expenditures
This paper demonstrates that provisions for initiatives have important effects on government spending. Provisions for initiatives encourage legislatures to approve any proposal which might attract substantial popular support. If these proposals are more likely to advocate increases than reductions in expenditures, the presence of initiative provisions will increase total expenditures. Direct government expenditures per capita are significantly higher in both states and municipalities which permit initiatives.
Journal Article
Standards of Excellence: U.S. Residents' Evaluations of Local Government Services
A meta-analysis of evaluative surveys that were answered by more than 200,000 US citizens indicates a generally favorable assessment for local government activities. Among the various services evaluated, fire, library and trash hauling tended to receive the highest ratings, while transit services, animal control, street repair and planning/zoning received the lowest ratings. A meta-analysis focused on service evaluations integrated from 261 citizen surveys administered to more than 215,000 people living in US cities, counties, and townships. The results of these surveys were used to represent the opinions of more than 40 million US residents about quality of local government services or quality of community life. These evaluative surveys indicate generally favorable assessments for local government activities. Of the various services evaluated, fire, library, and trash hauling tended to receive the highest ratings, while transit services, animal control, street repair, and planning-zoning received the lowest ratings. Proximity to a metropolitan job center, community wealth, and education might be key factors in explaining differences in evaluations of services among localities.
Journal Article
Public Personnel Administration by Lawsuit: The Impact of Supreme Court Decisions on Public Employee Litigiousness
What has been the impact of U. S. Supreme Court decisions on public employee litigiousness? Focusing on Court decisions in five key cases between 1972 and 1980, Don Jaegal and N. Joseph Cayer provide some answers indicating significant implications for the conduct of public personnel policy in the United States. The 1972 Roth decision had an immediate and enduring impact through increasing the number of civil suits by public employees claiming their rights had been violated by employers. That trend was only temporarily interrupted by the Court's 1976 Bishop decision. The study also reveals the implications of all five decisions on the nature of the complaints made in employee lawsuits as well as their impact on which public officials were targets of those court actions. Jaegal and Cayer conclude with a brief discussion of steps public personnel administrators might take in light of these findings.
Journal Article
A Positive Image Is Not Just the Business of Business.(municipal government)
There was a time when local government administrators believed that positive public image was just fluff, something only businesses had to worry about. However, with some communities questioning their political leadership, the value of a professional manager, or even their form of government, and with the public outcry over taxes and proposed projects, administrators recognize that something must be done to restore the relationship between local governments and the citizens they serve.
Journal Article