Elected officials’ perceptions of governance relationships and budget participation mechanisms

Author(s):  
Carol Ebdon ◽  
Yue Jiang ◽  
Aimee L. Franklin

Issues like fiscal crises and sequestration may cause elected officials to get citizen input in the budget process. This action can be viewed as a reactive strategy used when the relationship with citizens is weakening; or, a proactive strategy to keep governance relationships strong. This conundrum prompts examination of how budgetary participation mechanisms serve representative democracy and governance goals. Using survey results from public officials in 391 midwestern cities regarding perceptions of governance relationships and the use of participation mechanisms, we find no significant relationships and weak explanatory power in the causal model. When trust in government keeps falling, the relative strength of the relationship between public officials and citizens is an issue that public administrators must understand to develop effective budget participation mechanisms.

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduard Bakoš ◽  
Filip Hrůza ◽  
David Fiedor ◽  
Kamila Dolák Klemešová

Abstract Though the exploration of inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) is very widespread in contemporary literature worldwide, the perception of IMC by municipal officials is rarely examined. We focused this paper on revealing the relationship between the perceptions of municipal public officials and the realized benefits of municipal cooperation. Our research combines primary data from a survey of municipalities engaged in a form of IMC and in-depth interviews of both municipal officials and managers who coordinate IMC. Our survey results show that agreement with the statement that IMC helps solve administrative capacity problems tends to vary with the size of the municipality. This study detected considerable obstacles to IMC use, with one set of respondents indicating that they had tried cooperation and found that it did not yield significant, positive financial or non-financial benefits for them. Our in-depth interviews revealed that strong political leadership and experienced managerial staff can contribute to the development of municipal cooperation. In summary, our research provides evidence supporting the notion that the perception of IMC by municipal officials could be an important precursor to actual IMC use and future development.


2021 ◽  
pp. 875529302110354
Author(s):  
Haoyi Xiu ◽  
Takayuki Shinohara ◽  
Masashi Matsuoka ◽  
Munenari Inoguchi ◽  
Ken Kawabe ◽  
...  

After an earthquake occurs, field surveys are conducted by relevant authorities to assess the damage suffered by buildings. The field survey is essential as it ensures the safety of residents and provides the necessary information to local authorities for post-disaster recovery. In Japan, a primary (mandatory) exterior survey is conducted first, and a secondary (voluntary) interior survey is performed subsequently if the residents request a reinvestigation. However, a major challenge associated with field surveys is the substantial time cost of determining the damage grades. Moreover, an interior survey is performed only after receiving the reinvestigation request from occupants, which further delays the decision-making process. In addition, the risk of incorrect damage estimation during the exterior survey must be considered because underestimating the damage can endanger the residents. Therefore, in this study, a three-part analysis (Parts I–III), where each part corresponds to a distinct stage of the standard damage assessment procedure, was performed to characterize the relationship between the building parameters and damage grades at different stages. To further explore the possibility of accelerating decision-making, predictive modeling was performed in each part. The Part I results indicate that estimating the final damage grade for all buildings immediately after the exterior survey is similar to treating the exterior survey results as the final ones. The Part II results show that buildings that potentially require an interior survey can be predicted with reasonable accuracy after the exterior survey. In buildings for which reinvestigations have been requested, Part III demonstrates that the risk of underestimation in the exterior survey can be predicted reliably.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 1219-1236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ha Na Im ◽  
Chang Gyu Choi

This study proposes an alternative to the conventional entropy-based land use mix index, which is generally used to measure the diversity of land use. Pedestrian volume was selected as the dependent variable as it represents the vitality of districts, which many recent urban studies now consider important. The study investigates an entropy-based weighted land use mix index, which is weighted by different land use types. For the index, different areas are needed to generate a unit of pedestrian volume, whose measure is m2/person/day. The study demonstrates that this alternative is more effective than the existing conventionally used entropy-based land use mix index for explaining pedestrian volume. The research confirms that the conventionally used entropy-based land use mix index can have a positive or negative impact depending on the land use characteristics of the survey points because the conventionally used entropy-based land use mix index has a non-linear relationship with pedestrian volume. By analysing 9727 surveyed locations of pedestrian volume in Seoul, Korea, the study demonstrates that the weighted land use mix index, rather than the conventionally used entropy-based land use mix index, can improve the explanatory power of the estimation model for the relationship between pedestrian volume and built environments, showing consistent results throughout the empirical analysis. In future built-environment studies, the utility of the weighted land use mix index is expected to improve if studies include how to find the accurate weighting of the land use in estimating the pedestrian volume.


2011 ◽  
Vol 261-263 ◽  
pp. 416-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fu Ping Jia ◽  
Heng Lin Lv ◽  
Yi Bing Sun ◽  
Bu Yu Cao ◽  
Shi Ning Ding

This paper presents the results of elevated temperatures on the compressive of high fly ash content concrete (HFCC). The specimens were prepared with three different replacements of cement by fly ash 30%, 40% and 50% by mass and the residual compressive strength was tested after exposure to elevated temperature 250, 450, 550 and 650°C and room temperature respectively. The results showed that the compressive strength apparently decreased with the elevated temperature increased. The presence of fly ash was effective for improvement of the relative strength, which was the ratio of residual compressive strength after exposure to elevated temperature and ordinary concrete. The relative compressive strength of fly ash concrete was higher than those of ordinary concrete. Based on the experiments results, the alternating simulation formula to determine the relationship among relative strength, elevated temperature and fly ash replacement is developed by using regression of results, which provides the theoretical basis for the evaluation and repair of HFCC after elevated temperature.


2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 661-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Fairbrother

This article presents results from survey experiments investigating conditions under which Britons are willing to pay taxes on polluting activities. People are no more willing if revenues are hypothecated for spending on environmental protection, while making such taxes more relevant to people – by naming petrol and electricity as products to which they will apply – has a modestly negative effect. Public willingness increases sharply if people are told that new environmental taxes would be offset by cuts to other taxes, but political distrust appears to undermine much of this effect. Previous studies have argued that political trust shapes public opinion with respect to environmental and many other policies. But this article provides the first experimental evidence suggesting that the relationship is causal, at least for one specific facet: cynicism about public officials’ honesty and integrity. The results suggest a need to make confidence in the trustworthiness of public officials and their promises more central to conceptualizations of political trust.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Domenico Celenza ◽  
Fabrizio Rossi

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate performance and Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAICTM) on the one hand, and the relationship between the variations in market value and the variations in VAIC on the other hand. Design/methodology/approach – Starting from the VAIC model, 23 Italian listed companies were examined with the aim of investigating the relationship between VAIC and the performance of the firms in the sample. The analysis was divided into two stages. In the first stage, eight models of linear regression were estimated to verify the presence of a positive and statistically significant relationship between M/BV and VAIC and between accounting performance indicators (ROE, ROI, ROS) and the VAIC. In the second stage, six other models were tested, considering as an independent variable the variations in VAIC and the variations in profitability indicators. Findings – The outcomes of the application stress the importance of VAIC in the explanation of the variations in MV and its role as “additional coefficient” in the analysis of equity performance. Originality/value – This methodology highlights some very interesting aspects. In particular, whereas the relationship between M/BV and VAIC and between profitability indicators (ROI, ROE, ROS) and VAIC is statistically insignificant, the subsequent analysis highlights the importance of VAIC as a variable capable of increasing the explanatory power of the regression in a cross-sectional perspective.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Georgia Stephanou ◽  
Georgios Gkavras

This study study aimed to examine (a) adolescents’ attributions and emotions for their subjectively perceived good and bad relationships with their parents, (b) the association of the intuitive and attributional appraisals of the adolescent-parent relationship with the subsequent emotions, and (c) the role of the perceived importance of the good adolescent-parent relationship in the generation of attributions and emotions, and in the impact of attributions on emotions. The sample comprised 670 adolescents, both genders, aged 14-17 years old, representing various parental socioeconomic levels. The results showed that: (a) It was extremely important for the adolescents to have good relationships with their parents, (b) the perceived good adolescent-parent relationships were attributed to internal, stable and personal controllable factors, along with parent- and self-parent interactive- related factors, while the estimated as bad relationships were attributed to external, stable, personal uncontrollable and external controllable factors (parents’ negative properties), (c) the adolescents experienced intense positive and negative emotions (mainly, general / outcome- dependent) for the perceived good and bad relationships with their parents, respectively, (d) both intuitive and attributional appraisals of the relationship were associated with the emotions, particularly in the perceived bad adolescent-parent relationship, and (e) the relative strength of the association of the attributional dimensions with the emotions varied between the perceived good and bad adolescent-parent relationship and across the various emotions. Keywords: Adolescent-Parent Relationship, Attributions, Emotions, Intuitive Appraisal.


1988 ◽  
Vol 153 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon Eisenberg

The rationale upon which public policy for the support of psychiatric research has been fashioned and the extent to which the results of that research are used to shape public mental-health policy are examined. Support for research competes with other claims for resource allocation and the decisions made reflect the relative strength of the interested constituencies. When research findings promise cost savings, they are readily adopted (sometimes unwisely so), but when they require substantial new outlays or changes in bureaucratic agencies, they are all too often ignored.


Author(s):  
Ilse Maria Beuren ◽  
Sabrina Do Nascimento ◽  
Irani Rocha

The study poses to investigate the relationship between the level of environmental disclosure and economic performance of open capital companies as classified by the Você S/A – As Melhores Empresas para Você Trabalhar (The Best Companies to Work) guide. A descriptive study, employing a quantitative approach, was conducted via documental analysis of financial statements of the therein featured, 21 open capital companies. Survey results evidence that: a) in the environmental disclosure categorization, 680 data entries were found, ranging from 99 deemed complete information, 126 as incomplete and 455 absent; b) in terms of environmental disclosure score levels, 55% of the companies were graded as unsatisfactory, 35% regular and 9% good; and c) the relationship between corporate environmental disclosure levels and economic performance revealed bleak correlation. Thus, once employing the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology, the study concludes that not all companies that presented higher environmental information disclosure levels attained efficient economic performance.


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