Contemporary Challenges in Local Government: Evolving Roles and Responsibilities,Structures, and Processes

Editor's Note: The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2014. This article is the first of several that will appear during the next year about the council‐manager plan to commemorate ICMA's 100th anniversary. Three contemporary leadership challenges face local governments today. The first encourages department heads to more actively work the intersection between political and administrative arenas. The second promotes collaborative work, synchronizing city and county boundaries with problems that have no jurisdictional homes. The third argues that citizen engagement is no longer optional—it is imperative—and that connecting engagement initiatives to traditional political values and governing processes is an important mark of successful community building. These three leadership challenges stem from a widening gap between the arenas of politics and administration—that is, between what is politically acceptable in public policy making and what is administratively sustainable. The gap is fueled by conflicting trends experienced locally and common internationally. Failure to bridge this gap between political acceptability and administrative sustainability results in decreasing legitimacy for governing institutions and increasing challenges.     

Judicial policy‐making and the evolving rotection of human rights: The European court of human rights in comparative perspective

This contribution is a comparative analysis of three attempts to strengthen the supranational protection of human rights in an increasingly transnational world. It focuses on the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter‐American Court of Human Rights. The recent decision by the Inter‐American Court on the forced disappearance of individuals by state or para‐state forces illustrates the important role of cross‐pollenisation from the European Court and the United Nations. It further demonstrates how judges on supranational courts attempt to make law in the face of uncertain government compliance.     

The (in)significance of genocidal behavior to the discipline of criminology

Though scholars devoted to the discipline of criminology purport to be theoretically and pragmatically exhaustive with respect to their research on ``crime,' the study of genocide, an offense prohibited by international criminal law, has been virtually ignored. Nevertheless, the obligation to research genocidal behavior seems critical because of the comprehensive and threatening nature of the offense. Clearly, the consequences of genocide are more ominous than any single violation of domestic statutory law. Presentations at two annual criminal justice conferences and papers published in 13 prestigious periodicals devoted to the discipline of criminology are examined between 1990 and 1998. Content analyses demonstrate the reluctance of the discipline of criminology to identify the crime of genocide as one worthy of scholarly attention. These findings and the future of the discipline of criminology are assessed in light of the unequivocal danger posed by genocidal behavior.