Suchergebnisse

Legal mandates are a common mechanism to stimulate government agencies to engage the public. Research shows managerial efforts can also affect civic engagement. We first examine whether local government departments that are legally mandated to engage the public have more public participation than departments that are not mandated to do so. We then explore the relationship between manager perceptions of public participation and the frequency of public participation. Finally, we analyze the interactive effect of legal mandates and managerial perceptions. To investigate our research questions, we use regression models on data from a 2018 nationally representative survey of 527 local government managers in the United States. The results indicate legal mandates are not significantly related to public participation, but managerial perceptions are a key factor. These findings support pursuing a managerial approach to advance public participation in local government.

AbstractHealth crises, climate change, and technological hazards pose serious managerial and equity challenges for local governments. To effectively navigate the uncertainties and complexity, municipalities are increasingly collaborating with one another and sharing data and information to improve decision‐making. While data sharing fosters effectiveness in responding to threats, it also entails risks. One major concern is that local government managers often lack the knowledge and technical skills required for safe and effective data sharing, exposing municipalities to cyberthreats. Drawing on data sharing and cybersecurity scholarship, we investigate whether increased data sharing among local governments makes cities more or less vulnerable to cyberincidents. We test our hypotheses using data from two national surveys of U.S. local government managers conducted in 2016 and 2018. Our findings contribute to the literature on technology and risk in government by informing both public managers and researchers about the potential threats associated with data sharing.