Public Service
Public Service

Author: Marc Holzer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-03-05

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0429966504

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This volume includes perspectives on public service selected from six decades of major public administration journals. Recurring themes include: motivations to enter the public service, positive and negative images of public servants and of government, conflicts between loyalty to the organization and loyalty to the public, morale, burnout, and turnover. The volume also includes cross-national analyses of the public service in other systems, proposals for rethinking public service systems, and questions as to the future of the public service. It recaptures a long, continuing debate as to the health of the public service, and in so doing suggests agendas for university research and administrative action.

More than Mayor or Manager
More than Mayor or Manager

Author: James H. Svara

Publisher: Georgetown University Press

Published: 2010-11-23

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1589016203

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Different forms of city government are in widespread use across the United States. The two most common structures are the mayor-council form and the council-manager form. In many large U.S. cities, there have been passionate movements to change the structure of city governments and equally intense efforts to defend an existing structure. Charter change (or preservation) is supported to solve problems such as legislative gridlock, corruption, weak executive leadership, short-range policies, or ineffective delivery of services. Some of these cities changed their form of government through referendum while other cities chose to retain the form in use. More than Mayor or Manager offers in-depth case studies of fourteen large U.S. cities that have considered changing their form of government over the past two decades: St. Petersburg, Florida; Spokane, Washington; Hartford, Connecticut; Richmond, Virginia; San Diego, California; Oakland, California; Kansas City, Missouri; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Dallas, Texas; Cincinnati, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; Topeka, Kansas; St. Louis, Missouri; and Portland, Oregon. The case studies shed light on what these constitutional contests teach us about different forms of government—the causes that support movements for change, what the advocates of change promised, what is at stake for the nature of elected and professional leadership and the relationship between leaders, and why some referendums succeeded while others failed. This insightful volume will be of special interest to leaders and interest groups currently considering or facing efforts to change the form of government as well as scholars in the field of urban studies.

Claiming the City
Claiming the City

Author: Shelton Stromquist

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2023-02-14

Total Pages: 709

ISBN-13: 1839767782

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For more than a century, municipal socialism has fired the imaginations of workers fighting to make cities livable and democratic. At every turn propertied elites challenged their right to govern. Prominent US labor historian, Shelton Stromquist, offers the first global account of the origins of this new trans-local socialist politics. He explains how and why cities after 1890 became crucibles for municipal socialism. Drawing on the colorful stories of local activists and their social-democratic movements in cities as diverse as Broken Hill, Christchurch, Malm, Bradford, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Hamilton, OH, the book shows how this new urban politics arose. Long governed by propertied elites, cities in the nineteenth century were transformed by mass migration and industrialization that tore apart their physical and social fabric. Amidst massive strikes and faced with epidemic disease, fouled streets, unsafe water, decrepit housing, and with little economic security and few public amenities, urban workers invented a local politics that promised to democratize cities they might themselves govern and reclaim the wealth they created. This new politics challenged the class power of urban elites as well as the centralizing tendencies of national social-democratic movements. Municipal socialist ideas have continued to inspire activists in their fight for the right of cities to govern themselves.

Leaders in the Shadows
Leaders in the Shadows

Author: David Siegel

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2015-02-26

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1442619821

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In most municipalities across Canada, the top public servant is the chief administrative officer (CAO) or city manager. Compared to elected politicians such as the mayor and the council, the work of a CAO is often overlooked and not well understood. In Leaders in the Shadows, David Siegel brings the CAO into the limelight, examining the leadership qualities of effective municipal managers. Using the examples of five exceptional CAOs who have worked in municipalities of varying sizes across Canada, Siegel identifies the leadership traits, skills, and behaviours which have made them successful. Interweaving the stories of his subjects with insights drawn from leadership theory, Siegel offers an engrossing account of how CAOs must lead “up, down, and out” in order to succeed. Offering well-rounded accounts of the challenges and opportunities faced by public servants at the municipal level, Leaders in the Shadows is a valuable resource for academics and practitioners alike.

Local Government Management
Local Government Management

Author: Douglas J. Watson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-15

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 1134942710

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Some of the very best writings on issues involving local government can be found in journals published by the American Society for Public Administration or journals with which ASPA is associated. This volume includes thirty of the most outstanding articles that have been published over the past sixty years in these journals. Local Government Management is an ideal supplement for any course in local management and administration, whether the audience is students or practicing professionals.