Suchergebnisse

The performance of election systems in the United States depends heavily on complex networks of people, tasks, organizations, and relationships, as well as the voting technology that has received so much attention since the presidential election of 2000. Public administration has much to contribute to our understanding of these systems. This article provides an overview of the field, highlighting linkages to theoretical approaches in public administration and emphasizing the importance of management in a brief case study.

ABSTRACTThe growing exposure of the U.S. economy to international competition, popularly termed globalization, over the past two decades has brought some momentous changes affecting the American economy, society, and life styles. Not surprisingly, these changes have been reflected in growing political turbulence and shifts in policy paradigms as well. This symposium explores the effects that globalization has had on economic development policy and practice by state and local governments in the United States. Part I charts and seeks to explain"The Expanding Global Linkages" of state and local governments over the last several decades. Part II on the" Potential for Transformation "then argues that the economic transformations set off by globalization are pushing state and local development policy toward strategies that should overcome some of the problems associated with the previous strategy dubbed "smokestack chasing." Yet, caution is certainly necessary before accepting such optimistic interpretations. Part III, therefore, presents several analyses suggesting that smokestack chasing "struck back" and that blind reliance on free markets and entrepreneurs hip can be dangerous to a community's social and economic health, indicting the existence of "Pitfalls in a Changing Universe."

Administering Elections provides a digest of contemporary American election administration using a systems perspective. The authors provide insight into the interconnected nature of all components of elections administration, and sheds like on the potential consequences of reforms that fail to account for this

How do disasters affect voting? A series of postdisaster studies have sought to answer this question using a retrospective framework through which voters deviate from normal patterns of political support (measured by votes or attitudes) to punish or reward officials for their performance, or lack thereof. Here, we argue that the political effects of disasters can last longer than and be qualitatively different from reactions to the original disaster because postdisaster recoveries generate their own issues, to which voters may respond prospectively, and retrospectively. Local communities affected by disasters are likely sites for this effect because their citizens experience the consequences of a disaster more directly and for longer periods than do national audiences. The case of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina demonstrates this point. Where most studies of postdisaster politics use partisanship as the baseline against which to measure change, we use race because that has been the overriding division in New Orleans. We show that local political effects of Katrina were much more complex and longer lasting than have been found in prior research based on the retrospective model. In the years following the storm, voters changed the pattern of race-based voting for mayoral candidates, approved major governmental reforms, and responded to prospective issues in their evaluation of the incumbent mayor.

Hurricane Katrina revealed a lack of preparedness in disaster management networks covering the New Orleans area. This paper focuses on the operation of networks in preparing to evacuate residents in advance of a major disaster. There are two cases: the relatively successful evacuation of residents who left by private conveyance and the widely publicized failure to provide for those who could not or would not leave on their own. We trace the actions and inactions of various players to reach conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of networks in the special circumstances of disaster preparation.