Searching for the best structure for American local government

Citizens, practitioners and academicians involved in local government have for decades debated the best structure for local public organizations; at the polar ends of this debate are those advocating rational administration and those advocating political responsiveness. The conventional wisdom equates rational administration with reformed structures like the council-manager plan and political responsiveness with structures which have an elected chief executive officer. The debate is unresolvable within this value-driven framework, and these ideological positions do not seem to be helping in the design of governmental structures which “work” in a practical and meaningful way. The paper argues for a “functional” model of local government structure based on how much citizens and administrators can know and oversee with competence. The analysis leads to a significant rethinking of the role of governing bodies, administrators, and the general management position in American local government.     

Notes for Contributors

<正>The Global Review is a bilingual(Chinese and English) bimonthly in the field of international relations,the first of its kind in China,and published by SIIS in cooperation with the     

Notes for Contributors

<正>The Global Review is a bilingual (Chinese and English) bimonthly in the field of international relations,the first of its kind in China,and published by SIIS in cooperation with the     

Notes for Contributors

Global Review is a bilingual(Chinese and English) bimonthly in IR category,the first of the kind in China,published by SIIS and the co-publisher Shanghai Association of International Relations.We invite contributions submitted by Chinese as well as