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Both communicative planning theory and competing values models of public administration suggest attitudinal differences should exist between planners employed by private firms and those employed by government entities to the extent the perceptions of the former group are influenced by market forces to a greater degree than the latter. To test this, nine ordinal regression models were estimated using data collected from a national survey of 1,299 American Planning Association (APA) members. Planners employed in the public sector were found to be consistently more optimistic than private sector planners about government's ability to manage political pressures and competing interests in the planning process. The results not only underscore the importance of existing planning and public administration theory but also offer a starting point to consider how sectoral differences in planners' attitudes may influence outsourcing arrangements, public–private partnerships and other forms of cross-sector collaboration.

Contents -- Preface -- 1 Who Wants Circus Politicus? -- A Partnership: Cities and Parties -- Cities' Goals -- Motivations -- Not a Shriners Convention and Not the Olympics -- Party Goals -- The Party Signal -- The Organizational Chart -- Cities and Mega-Events -- 2 Matchmaking: The Politics of Site Selection -- The Site Selection Process -- Stage 1-The Pre-bid Phase: "The Invisible Primary" -- Stage 2-The Party Invites: The Request for Proposal -- Stage 3-Bid Submission -- Size -- Infrastructure -- Tourism Employment -- Economics -- Previous Bids -- Politics -- Stage 4-Selection of Finalists and Site Selection Visits -- Stage 5-Selection of the Host -- Conclusion -- 3 Paying for Conventions -- Who Pays for the Parties' Parties? The Struggle over Public versus Private Funding -- The Costs of Conventions -- The Fundraising Challenge -- Community Chest Contributions from Local Residents and Businesses -- Access Contributions -- Ideological Contributions from Partisans -- The Dynamics of Fundraising -- Reform Redux -- 4 Unconventional Conventions: Protests, Hurricanes, and Other Logistical Nightmares -- Planning and Coordination -- Preparing for Protests -- Disruption Costs from Security -- Weather -- Lessons Learned: Intergovernmental Management Considerations -- Conclusions: Preparing for the "Unknown" -- 5 The Political Benefits of Political Conventions -- Conventions as Campaign Tactics -- The Local Convention Benefits for the Party -- County-level Turnout -- Individual Engagement -- Vote Choice -- The Benefits of Conventions for City Politicians -- Local Government Evaluations -- Mayoral Careers -- But Do They Win? -- Conclusion -- 6 Conventions as Economic Development: Do They Matter? -- Growth Regimes and Economic Development -- Local Economic Growth Policy -- Measuring Economic Impact -- Do Conventions Matter, Economically Speaking?

AbstractDuring the past ten years, succession planning and managing executive transitions have emerged as important issues in the nonprofit sector. Demographers and economists have speculated for years about the potential effects of the retirement of baby boomers. The time has finally arrived: the oldest of the baby boomers are now eligible for retirement. The question that remains is how this trend will affect the nonprofit sector and the communities they serve. This study examines the issues of turnover and succession planning at the executive level, along with career development among young nonprofit professionals in Charlotte, North Carolina. Not only do the findings suggest that the community may very well see a crisis in leadership, but they also illustrate a growing disconnect between executive leaders and young professionals in nonprofit organizations. In addition to struggling with the realities of working in the nonprofit sector (limited benefits, challenging workloads), most young professionals reported that they felt undervalued by older managers and staff, and very few aspire to the position of executive director. Taken together, these findings have important implications for the local community and the broader nonprofit sector.

"Research Methods for Public Administrators introduces students to the methodological tools public administrators and policy analysts use to conduct research in the twenty-first century. Full of engaging examples and step-by-step instructions to illustrate common research methods and techniques, this book provides future administrators with an unshakeable foundation in model building, research design, and statistical applications. New to the Seventh Edition: Additional / expanded material on qualitative research; big data; metadata; literature reviews; and causal inference New material on experiments and experimental research. New examples / case studies including those dealing with public policy. Expanded material on using computers for data management"--

This article examines the effects of accomplishments on the career paths of big-city mayors. Using data from 104 cities with populations over 160,000 from 1992 to 2012, this study examines the extent to which performance in economics, crime, and recruiting mega-events affects mayors' decisions to seek reelection or other offices, or retire. Results indicate those mayors of cities with population growth, a decrease in the crime rate, and that host certain mega-events (presidential nominating conventions) are more likely to seek another office than other mayors. A decrease in the crime rate seems to help mayors win reelection while none of the other accomplishments appear to improve their chances of winning campaigns for other offices.

AbstractPublic school choice is a widely used tool for education reform and may be a way to improve school accountability and efficiency. This article examines what happened to student outcomes when Charlotte‐Mecklenburg Schools, a large and diverse urban school district located in North Carolina, changed its assignment policy to one of open enrollment with mandatory choice. The previous policy used a broad array of magnet schools and a limited amount of mandatory busing to achieve desegregation. The new policy required that all students choose a school, and it specifically avoided using race or ethnicity considerations in assigning students. The article examines the impacts of the new policy on the end‐of‐grade standardized tests in reading and math. The article uses regression analysis to discover whether the scores of various groups of students increased or decreased after the policy change. The analysis suggests that the "race‐neutral" assignment policy was neither neutral in the opportunity it provided students to attend their school of choice nor in its academic outcomes. Anglo students were more likely to receive their first choice of schools and to improve their scores. African American students were less likely to receive their first choice school and their scores declined.