This book reviews and analyzes the innovative measures introduced, lessons learned and problems encountered by selected and representative provinces, cities and counties with regard to the openness of local government affairs. To do so, it focuses on fields that are closely related to economic and social development and to the vital interests of the people, and which have thus aroused great social concerns, such as the pre-disclosure of major decision-making, policy interpretation, optimization of the business environment, and education. In turn, the book addresses standardization concerning the openness of government affairs; in this regard, numerous departments under the State Council and local governments at various levels have already engaged in pilot work, so as to provide a basis for pursuing the openness of government affairs throughout the country. The book subsequently analyzes current problems in this regard, considers the future prospects, and puts forward suitable solutions.

This book examines the foundation and progress of the Rochester Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative (RMAPI). Poverty has once again become a major issue in American cities, and nowhere more so than Rochester, which has one of the highest rates of poverty in the nation. RMAPI was established to reduce poverty, yet in the five years since its formation the poverty rate is essentially unchanged. Analyzing the reasons behind its failure, this book argues that the very nature of the organizational framework is part of the problem, and that RMAPI's project is caught up with contradictory imperatives of neo-liberal welfare reforms. More than just a study of local interest, the book uses Rochester as a case study to illuminate the limits of the neo-liberal approach to poverty. It will appeal to all those interested in political science, urban politics, community studies, welfare policy and public administration.

Medicaid is the largest grant-in-aid program in the United States. Reform in this area, therefore, provides a unique opportunity to study the intersection between federal and state policy making in an area recently characterized by substantial uncertainty deriving from the lingering effects of the Great Recession, ongoing debate over the federal budget, and implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Invariably states reform the way health care is delivered, regulated, and financed within broader parameters established by federal statutes and regulations. It is critical therefore that effective strategies be put into place if both current and future health and long-term care reform efforts are to have their greatest chances at success. Rhode Island is the first state to receive permission to operate its entire Medicaid program under a global cap. As a consequence, it has entered the national consciousness as a key data point potentially supporting the block grant approach to Medicaid reform. In this book, Edward Alan Miller identifies factors that either facilitated or impeded the design and implementation of Rhode Island's Global Consumer Choice Compact Medicaid Waiver in order to draw broader lessons for the Medicaid block grant debate and health and long-term care reform more generally. Evidence gathered from archival sources and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders exposes the role that provider capacity has played in the implementation process, including adult day care, assisted living, home maker, and other home- and community-based services. The impact of the Global Waiver on the nursing home sector is examined as well, in addition to new authority to obtain federal matching dollars for previously state-only funded programs. By providing a sophisticated understanding of factors enhancing or impeding state health reform, this book will contribute to improvements in the development and administration of policy development at both the state- and federal-levels.

Regulation has become a front-page topic recently, often referenced by politicians in conjunction with the current state of the U.S. economy. Yet despite regulation's increased presence in current politics and media, The Politics of Regulatory Reform argues that the regulatory process and its influence on the economy is misunderstood by the general public as well as by many politicians. In this book, two experienced regulation scholars confront questions relevant to both academic scholars and those with a general interest in ascertaining the effects and importance of regulation. How does regulation impact the economy? What roles do politicians play in making regulatory decisions? Why do politicians enact laws that require regulations and then try to hamper agencies abilities to issue those same regulations? The authors answer these questions and untangle the misperceptions behind regulation by using an area of regulatory policy that has been underutilized until now. Rather than focusing on the federal government, Shapiro and Borie-Holtz have gathered a unique dataset on the regulatory process and output in the United States. They use state-specific data from twenty-eight states, as well as a series of case studies on regulatory reform, to question widespread impressions and ideas about the regulatory process. The result is an incisive and comprehensive study of the relationship between politics and regulation that also encompasses the effects of regulation and the reasons why regulatory reforms are enacted.

This fully updated second edition of the "Politico's Guide to Local Government" is a comprehensive guide to every aspect of British local government. As well as outlining the role of councillors and local government officers, it contains a full history of local government in Britain. It examines the politicisation of local government and analyses New Labour's policies and attitudes to local government.

The effects of neoliberal economic reforms in the Southern Mediterranean are now widely regarded as a main underlying cause of the Arab uprisings. An often neglected dimension is that of the reforms' implications for local governance. The contributions to this edited volume examine how state power is being re-articulated but also challenged at sub-national levels in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Turkey. They explore the effects of neoliberal economic and local governance reforms such as decentralization, public-private partnerships, and outsourcing in the area of public service delivery, poverty alleviation, and labor market reforms on local patronage networks, public accountability, and state-society relations. The findings show that such reforms are often subordinated to established patterns of political contestation among actors who seize on the opportunities that reforms offer to advance their political agendas, thereby illustrating the local specificity of 'actually existing neoliberalisms'. The book thus fills an important knowledge gap by combining public policy and management theories with those on patron-client networks and public accountability at the local level, and situating them within the critical literature on neoliberalism. This book was published as a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.

This collection shifts the focus away from this to examine the conflicts and realities of development at a local, empirical level. It provides a series of case studies which illuminate the attitudes and actions of those involved in local development schemes. The material is drawn from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. All the contributors use rigorous anthropological methods of analysis to shed light on the place of feelings of personal sentiment and identity in reactions to planned development schemes. In a world where direct action and public protest are routine responses to local development schemes, they show how protesters, developers and politicians often hold very different fundamental views about the environment, society, government and development which go beyond partisan economic and political interests. This collection provides a comparative perspective on the context of development, and should be of interest to social anthropologists, planners, development workers and specialists in development studies.

Power and Party in an English City provides an account of how decisions are taken by the state at the level of locality. More specifically, it is an account of the private policy-making activities of a ruling Labour group of councillors in the major English city of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Despite the fact that local government in most of the towns and cities of England is one-party government, very little is known abotu the private behaviour of ruling party groups. In this book David Green provides a penetrating empirical study of the realities of local government. The author seeks to examine and analyse the importance of party discipline, the relationship between the Labour group of councillors and the party outside the council, the power of the committee chairmen, the role of local patronage and the openness of the local policy-making process. The government of Newcastle is perhaps the most closely association in the public mind with T. Dan Smith, the corrupt local politician. In fact, Smith had left local politics in Newcastle in teh mid-1960s. How was the city being run a decade or so later? This study is however much more than an inside view of the affairs of a single authority. The last part of the book is devoted to a discussion of aspects of some traditional and modern theories of democracy and specifically to what author sees as the inadequate advocacy of participatory democracy in recent years. Green makes a major contribution to our thinking about the kind of democracy that is possible in modern large-scale societies, explores weaknesses of moder theories and puts forward some original modifications to modern democratic theory, in the light of a theory of knowledge which is seen as more appropriate for modern natural and social scientific activity. This book was first published in 1981.

Local government passed unscathed through the political and economic upheavals which followed the Great Depression. Contemporary commentators had every reason to look forward to continued growth and expansion in the role of local government, which was seen as the main vehicle for the social programmes of the comeing Welfare State. That optimism was misplaced. Many of the trends of the early twentieth century have been reveresed. From the vantage point of 1985, local government was in crisis so severe that its continued existence was called into question. In this unique book eleven authors explain what happened and how the local government system weakened. Political, financial, economic and legal issues are explored, as are factors such as housing, planning, and social welfare. This book was first published in 1985.

Using the historic Minnesota state government shutdown of 2011 as a backdrop, Interfaith Advocacy describes the work of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition, an interfaith advocacy group that brings together leaders from Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim traditions to advocate on behalf of a range of policies. As the nation's first statewide interfaith lobbying group, the story of the JRLC facilitates an examination of the role of political advocacy groups in state level American politics: what they are, how and why they form, how they mobilize citizens to participate in the political process, how they work to influence government, and what their impact is on American democracy. With research based on two years of in-depth interviews, participant observation, and analysis of archival records, this volume offers proof that it is possible to build successful long term political coalitions among improbable allies. The book investigates both the strengths and weaknesses of this model of advocacy and concludes that the presence of religious advocacy groups in the political process offers substantial benefits of representation, concern for underrepresented issues and groups, and the development of networks of social capital. Interfaith Advocacy is grounded in the theoretical literature of political science but also accessible to all readers who have an interest in political advocacy, state politics, or religion and politics.

The concept of the “free press” is often celebrated as the vehicle which finally brought freedom of speech and democracy to postapartheid South Africa, but historically, the position of the press was more complicated.This book dives into the history of slavery at the
Cape between 1800 and 1838, reflecting on the fact that several founding journalists and printers were slave owners themselves and advertised slaves as regular “property” in their publications. The book presents an inclusive history of the founding of colonial newspapers
and magazines, driven by the question of how we in the 21st century should make sense of the role that newspapers and journalism played at key points in the history of slavery and its aftermath. The “slave press” was a label originally attached to The Cape Town
Gazette and African Advertiser when it was founded by a pair of wellconnected private British slave traders.This book challenges us to confront the ghost of the slave press, and to consider the complicated history of press freedom in South Africa. This important book will be of interest to scholars and students of journalism and media history, in South Africa and beyond.

Chris McNickle argues that New York City Mayor David Dinkins failed to wield the power of the mayor with the skill required to run the city. His Tammany clubhouse heritage and liberal political philosophy made him the wrong man for the time. His deliberate style of decision-making left the government he led lacking in direction. His courtly demeanor and formal personal style alienated him from the people he served while the multi-racial coalition he forged as New York's first African-American mayor weakened over time.

Dinkins did have a number of successes. He balanced four budgets and avoided a fiscal takeover by the unelected New York State Financial Control Board. Major crime dropped 14 percent and murders fell by more than 12 percent. Dinkins helped initiate important structural changes to the ungovernable school system he inherited. His administration reconfigured health care for the poor and improved access to medical treatment for impoverished New Yorkers.

McNickle argues that David Dinkins has received less credit than he is due for his successes because they were overshadowed by his failure to fulfill his promise to guide the city to racial harmony. This stimulating review of a transitional period in New York City's history offers perspective on what it takes to lead and govern.

To see like a city, rather than seeing like a state, is the key to understanding modern politics. In this book, Magnusson draws from theorists such as Weber, Wirth, Hayek, Jacobs, Sennett, and Foucault to articulate some of the ideas that we need to make sense of the city as a form of political order. Locally and globally, the city exists by virtue of complicated patterns of government and self-government, prompted by proximate diversity. A multiplicity of authorities in different registers is typical. Sovereignty, although often claimed, is infinitely deferred. What emerges by virtue of self-organization is not susceptible to control by any central authority, and so we are impelled to engage politically in a world that does not match our expectations of sovereignty. How then are we are to engage realistically and creatively? We have to begin from where we are if we are to understand the possibilities. Building on traditions of political and urban theory in order to advance a new interpretation of the role of cities/urbanism in contemporary political life, this work will be of great interest to scholars of political theory and urban theory, international relations theory and international relations.

This book examines one of the most high-profile municipal privatizations-the privatization of New York City's Central Park. The fiscal crisis of the 1970s established the political and cultural opening for privatizations, which were justified on the basis of increasing efficiency. However, as Cooke demonstrates, these justifications were deliberately blind to the social and economic implication of privatization. This fascinating account moves beyond the hackneyed pro- versus anti-privatization debate by reconceptualizing the park's privatization as an ensemble of contradictory class effects. It also highlights the immense theoretical and policy space for radically reconsidering and rethinking privatization processes in both the municipal and global contexts.

The secession of South Sudan in July 2011 took place against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, spurring hopes of a "new beginning" that might lead to a more just, democratic Sudan. Nonetheless, the years following secession have witnessed new wars, growing unrest, and renewed calls for the removal of the Islamist regime in Khartoum. This book examines how the Islamist project has shaped developments in Sudan, with a particular focus on how divisive policies at the local and regional levels have created growing regional subcultures of ethnic violence and fragmentation - as well as renewed struggles to fight continued marginalization.

First published in 1985, Between Centre and Locality provides the detailed accounts of the relations between central and local government in Britain since 1970s. The confrontation of centre and locality has been a constant theme of political debate and legislative action since Mrs Thatcher came to power. It discusses range of policy issues including education, the police, housing, race relations and finance. In addition, theoretical chapters are included which set the empirical studies in the broader context of theories of the State and of policy making. The chapters have each been written by an acknowledged authority on the particular subject and are based upon extensive research. The book will be of interest not only to academics in a number of fields but also to politicians, officers, and civil servants in central and local government.

The Semantic Web, extends the popular, day-to-day Web, enabling computers and people to effectively work together by giving information well-defined meaning. Knitting the Semantic Web explains the interdisciplinary efforts underway to build a more library-like Web through "semantic knitting." The book examines foundation activities and initiatives leading to standardized semantic metadata. These efforts lead to the Semantic Web-a network able to support computational activities and provide people with services efficiently. Leaders in library and information science, computer science, and information intensive domains provide insight and inspiration to give readers a greater understanding of the evolution of the Semantic Web. Librarians and information professionals are uniquely qualified to play a major role in the development and maintenance of the Semantic Web. Knitting the Semantic Web closely examines this crucial relationship in detail. This single source reviews the foundations, standards, and tools underlying the Semantic Web and presents thoughtful perspectives in the context of 2.0 developments. Many chapters include figures to illustrate concepts and ideas, and the entire text is extensively referenced. Topics in Knitting the Semantic Web include: RDF, its expressive power, and its ability to underlie the new Library catalog card for the coming century the value and application for controlled vocabularies SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System), the newest Semantic Web language managing scheme versioning in the Semantic Web Physnet portal service for physics Semantic Web technologies in biomedicine developing the United Nations Food and Agriculture ontology Friend Of A Friend (FOAF) vocabulary specification-with a real world case study at a university Web/Library 2.0 and more Knitting the Semantic Web is a stimulating resource for professionals, researchers, educators, and students in library and information science, computer science, information architecture, Web design, and Web services.

One important tradition in political science conceives of the Civil War in the United States serving as the functional equivalent of the English and French Revolutions, bringing with it the victory of liberal democratic industrialism over aristocratic agriculturalism. From this perspective, the Civil War is notable for its impact on the American state. Surprisingly however, little attention has been paid to the distinguishing features of this historic rupture in American politics. Through primary source research and the re-analysis of the rich historical literature about the antebellum era and the causes of the Civil War, Lawrence A. Anderson explores the relationship between federalism and the movement for secession in the United States during the pre-civil war era. Focusing primarily on South Carolina, Anderson carefully revisits theory on institutional analysis of political development to expose what caused secession in the United States.

California is at a tipping point. Severe budget deficits, unsustainable pension costs, heavy taxes, cumbersome regulation, struggling cities, and distressed public schools are but a few of the challenges that policymakers must address for the state to remain a beacon of business innovation and economic opportunity. City Journal has for years been cataloging the political and economic issues of our nation's largest metropolitan areas, and in this collection compiled and introduced by City Journal editor Brian C. Anderson, the cracks in California's flawed policy plans are displayed in detail, and analyzed by a diverse set of experts in the state's design. The list of contributors includes: Steven Malanga, William Voegeli, Joel Kotkin, Wendell Cox, Arthur B. Laffer, Steven Greenhut, Victor Davis Hanson, Heather Mac Donald, John Buntin, Ben Boychuk, Tom Gray, Andrew Klavan, Troy Senik, Larry Sand, Michael Anton, and Guy Sorman. While there is plenty of literature on California's history, topography, and attractions, The Beholden State: California's Lost Promise and How to Recapture It is the first book examining in rigorous detail how a place seen just a generation ago as the dynamic engine of the American future could, through bad policy ideas, find itself with among the highest unemployment rates and poorest educational outcomes in the country. The book is as thoroughly analytical as it is pragmatically proscriptive, complete with policy solutions mapping the way forward for a struggling state.

This book focuses on the practice and experience of urban delicacy governance in Xuhui District, Shanghai. As we know, urbanization is the inevitable course for agricultural civilization to move towards industrial civilization. Over the past forty years, the urbanization of China has developed rapidly and has become an important push for economic development and social progress. At the same time, the rapid expansion of city scale, the shortage of public services, environmental pollution, traffic congestion, housing tension, as well as other urban pain points have emerged, and these have brought about serious challenges to urban governance. Delicacy management is the concentrated expression of modern scientific management theory and the inherent requirement to realize the modernization of national governance systems and governance capability. From delicacy management to delicacy governance, urban governance needs the transformation of logic. Shanghai has been identified as the only super city in the Yangtze River Delta and East China. It is of great significance to understand the theory and practice of urban governance in Shanghai. Meanwhile, Xuhui District is one of the seven central urban areas in Shanghai with a profound historical background, important institutions, advanced science and education.

Several thousand new civil society organisations were legally established in Tunisia following the 2010-11 uprising that forced the long-serving dictator, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, from office. These organisations had different visions for a new Tunisia, and divisive issues such as the status of women, homosexuality, and human rights became highly contested. For some actors, the transition from authoritarian rule allowed them to have a strong voice that was previously muted under the former regimes. For others, the conflicts that emerged between the different groups brought new repressions and exclusions - this time not from the regime, but from 'civil society'. Vulnerable populations and the organisations working with them soon found themselves operating on uncertain terrain, where providing support to marginalised and routinely criminalised communities brought unexpected challenges. Here, Edwige Fortier explores this remarkable period of transformation and the effects of opening up public space in this way.

This book approaches the study of AfroEurope through narrative forms produced in contemporary France, a location which richly illustrates race in European spaces.

The book adopts a transdisciplinary lens that combines critical black and urban geographies, intersectional feminism, and textual analysis to explore the spatial negotiations of black women in France. It assesses literature, film, and music as narrative forms and engages with the sociocultural and political contexts from which they emerge. Through the figure of the black flâneuse and the analytical framework of "walking as method", the book goes beneath spectacular representations of ghettoised banlieues, televised protests, and shipwrecked migrants to analyse the spatiality of blackness in the everyday. It argues that the material-discursive framing of black flânerie, as both relational and embodied movements, renders visible a politics of place embedded in everyday micro-struggles of raced-sexed subjects.

Foregrounding expressive modes and forms that have traditionally received little critical attention outside of the French and francophone world, this book will be relevant to academics, researchers, writers, students, activists, and readers with interests in Literary and Cultural Studies, African and Afrodiasporic Studies, Black Feminisms, Migration Studies, Critical Black Geographies, Francophone Studies, and the comparative framework of Afroeuropean Studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction Part I: The Long Shadow of Marianne 1. I wonder as I wander: AfroFrench visuality and walking as method 2. The map is not the territory: francophonie and the errant writer 3. Black or French: voicing the borders of black France Part II: Blackness Intra Muros 4. Naming into place: Afropeanism as a poetics of relation 5. Zara in the metro: geographic variability and the ethnographic gaze 6. Re-imagining AfroParisianism: blackness encoded; spatiality decoded Conclusion: black spatiality and the search for ouverture

Examining the genral character and key issues of local politics, People, Power and Place discusses the effect of local government policieson the general population and identifies those who gain or lose under them. Based on a comparitive investigation of Britain and the United States, the book explores the changing influences of institutions and individuals in local political systems and activity. This perspective, first published in 1991, illustrates the role of national, international and historical factors in the evolution of local government as well as outlining the practice of local politics in both countries.

In defence of councillors is an unashamed defence of local representative democracy and of those elected to serve as councillors from the often ill-informed, ill-judged and inaccurate criticism made by the media, government and public, of councillors' personal, political and professional roles. By using qualitative research from a number of related projects, the book examines the roles, functions and responsibilities of councillors and the expectations placed upon them by citizens, communities and government. It also examines the impact council membership has on other facets of the councillor's life. The book examines how councillors develop strategies to overcome the constraints and restrictions on their office so as to be able to govern their communities, balance their political and public life and democratise and hold to account a vast array of unelected bodies that spend public money and develop public policy without the electoral mandate and legitimacy held by our councillors. -- .