Suchergebnisse

Neighborhood governance has emerged as an important arena for voluntary civic engagement, but little is known about how election participation varies across neighborhoods. We examined the election participation of 88 Los Angeles neighborhood councils (NCs) and found much of the variation can be explained by neighborhood demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Consistent with the voting participation literature, NCs with a higher percentage of Hispanic or poor residents had lower participation. Contrary to expectations, NCs with a higher percentage of Asian/Pacific Islander residents or lower educational attainment had higher participation. Interestingly, the presence of nonresidential NC stakeholders, such as business owners, workers, and nonprofit organizations, was not significantly related to participation after controlling for other factors.

Bidal Aguero was born on July 23, 1949, and attended Texas Technological College (later Texas Tech University) in the fall of 1967. While there, he became active a Mexican American student organization called Los Tertullianos, becoming vice-president in 1970 and president in 1971. Los Tertullianos organized gatherings and seminars to encourage Mexican American students to be more politically active. Aguero graduated from Texas Tech in December 1972 with a B.A. in music education and after working for Learn-Education Talent Search for seven months, he helped found COMA (Commerciantes Organizacion Mexicano Americano), the Mexican-American Chamber of Commerce, in 1972. ; He joined La Raza Unida Party, ran for local offices such as county commissioner, and participated in organizing protests for injustices done against Mexican Americans. Aguero was one of those who filed a lawsuit against the Lubbock Independent School District to change its method of electing school trustees. Aguero has worked in several local social service organizations such as Defensa, Inc., Chicanos Unidos-Campensions, and Llano Estacado Farmworkers of Tejas and government groups such as the South Plains Association of Governments, the State of Texas, and the City of Lubbock. Aguero is currently publisher of one of the two weekly Spanish newspapers in Lubbock, El Editor. ; Aguero has worked in several local social service organizations such as Defensa, Inc., Chicanos Unidos-Campensions, and Llano Estacado Farmworkers of Tejas and government groups such as the South Plains Association of Governments, the State of Texas, and the City of Lubbock. Aguero is currently publisher of one of the two weekly Spanish newspapers in Lubbock, El Editor. ; Full biography can be found at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ttusw/00042/tsw-00042.html ; The collection consists of personal, financial and business records, civil rights and social service organizational materials, and government papers. ; Bidal Aguero Papers, 1949-1988 and undated, Southwest ...

Focusing on the relatively longstanding experience of neighborhood councils in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo (1993-), this research note seeks to analyze how sustainable democratic innovation is and to explain subsequent results. Sustainability is assessed through the evolution of citizens' participation in elections and through the number of candidates who apply to become neighborhood councilors. For both indicators, a consistent decline in the levels of participation over time is found. This is deemed to be a consequence of an institutional design that seriously limits the performance of neighborhood councils in terms of their influence in the decision-making process and their acquisition of legitimacy and political capital. (GIGA)

Citizen participation in government decision making, especially at the local level, has received heightened attention with regard to its promise for improved governance. The overarching administrative ethos of the administrative state creates barriers to citizen participation in governance. Developing and nurturing citizen participation in the presence of the administrative state is a significant challenge. Drawing on the literary tradition of public engagement and learning, this article models a developmental strategy of participation that offers one avenue for achieving meaningful partnerships between city agencies and neighborhood councils in a metropolitan environment. We present a model of citizen participation that brings neighborhood councils and city agencies together in a collaborative partnership. This model is based on the literature on citizen participation, which focuses on the significance of interactive processes in building trust among participants and creating mutual understanding and agreement.

The article examines the administrative reform process at the local level in Italy. Its point of departure is the "institutional incrementalism" that has taken place in recent years through the proliferation of new agencies within the old structure of local government. It deals particularly with the establishment of neighborhood councils in a number of Italian cities and their more recent development in Bologna, Florence, and Milano. The general thesis is that the reform process is an adaptive reaction to the changing relation ship between the political administrative system and its citizens to maximize consensus and that the main function of the neighborhood councils has been to increase the legiti macy of the system by smoothing the policy process.

This article investigates the impacts of community contexts such as divergence with the city, differences within the community, and community capacity on the successful formation of Neighborhood Councils (NCs) in the City of Los Angeles. To date, 86 certified NCs out of 97 communities submitted application for certification. Event history analysis is conducted as an effective method to understand NC formation and the timing of the event. The results indicate that community heterogeneity characteristics such as race/ethnicity and income heterogeneity have dissimilar influence on the formation of NCs. Community capacity is also found to be positively related to earlier formation of NCs.