The Continuing Problem of Special Districts in American Government

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larita Killian
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Census Bureau ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Special Districts ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Policy Alignment ◽  
Definition Of

ABSTRACT Due to fiscal constraints and demands for increased accountability, scholars and public officials are reviewing the structure and reporting practices of local governments. These efforts are often incomplete, however, because they bypass special districts, which now comprise over 40 percent of all local governments. The proliferation of special districts has the potential to increase government costs, redirect the allocation of scarce resources, remove debt and expenditure practices from the public eye, and reduce democratic controls over elected officials. This paper highlights some of the public interest concerns related to these entities to inform future, localized research. For decades, scholars have approached special districts from two opposing theoretical perspectives: institutional reform and public choice. Literature from these opposing perspectives is used to analyze special districts along three dimensions: efficiency and economy of operations, policy alignment and allocation of resources, and democratic accountability. This paper uses the U.S. Census Bureau definition of special districts, though alternative definitions are discussed. Efforts by four states (Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and New York) to improve local government, and their varying approaches to special districts, are reviewed, leading to the conclusion that the complex issues related to special districts must be resolved within state contexts.

Institutional pressures influencing environmental management accounting adoption by Malaysian local governments

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Che Ku Hisam Che Ku Kassim ◽  
Noor Liza Adnan ◽  
Roziani Ali
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
State Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
The State ◽  
Institutional Pressures ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Environmental Management Accounting

Purpose Because of the heightened environmental awareness of the public, local governments (LGs) are being pressured to improve on the extent and quality of environmental disclosures (EDs) provided in an array of reporting media. The lack of an accounting tool to identify, measure and report EDs has propelled the infusion of environmental management accounting (EMA) to support the reporting practices. This paper aims to examine the institutional pressures influencing EMA adoption by Malaysian LGs. Design/methodology/approach Using the consensus approach, a self-administered questionnaire survey is conducted on accountants in LGs in Peninsular Malaysia. The items in the questionnaire are based on the findings of prior studies on EMA adoption. Findings The results suggest that coercive isomorphism from the state government is perceived to be the influential institutional factor placing intense pressures on LGs to adopt EMA. Research limitations/implications The results solidify the potential role of the state government in any public policy changes which could further stimulate and promote the adoption of EMA. Originality/value Insufficient empirical evidence on the adoption of EMA in LGs within a developing country’s perspective contributes to a limited understanding on the development of environmental-related practices in different economic stages and environment as well as within the public sector’s perspective.

scholarly journals Financial sustainability: An annotated bibliography

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-60
Author(s):  
Shivam Kakati ◽  
Arup Roy
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodology ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Annotated Bibliography ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Financial Sustainability ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Sectorial Analysis ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
Analytical Tools

The literature on financial sustainability is scattered in such a way that a synthesis is indispensable. The present study on an annotated bibliography of financial sustainability seeks to fill this particular gap by presenting a collation of published literature in the sphere. The sectorial analysis depicted that ability to cover the costs from its own resources and ability to pay debt were the key dimensions to measure financial sustainability. The majority of the studies were found in the public sector covering local governments and central governments particularly in such European countries as Spain, Italy and England. Earning enough resources, asset sustainability and the ability to repay obligations are the three dimensions to assess financial sustainability. The study also pointed out the key research areas, variables and analytical tools among other trends in the literature. The present study assists the future researchers in reviewing the literature on financial sustainability and developing research methodology.

scholarly journals Where flesh meets bone: dance in the modern art museum

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Joelle McCurdy
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Art Museum ◽  
Art Museums ◽  
The Public ◽  
Liminal Spaces ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Tate Modern ◽  
Definition Of

Dance has recently taken up an increasing presence in major modern art museums as core curatorial programming, occupying galleries throughout exhibition hours. Although time figures prominently in emerging literature addressing this trend, spatial analyses remain fragmentary. Yet, dance is distinctive from other time-based media because of its heightened relationship with space. This raises an important question: how does dance’s newfound presence ‘re-choreograph’ the spaces of modern art museums? Extending the work of Henri Lefebvre, this dissertation adopts an expanded definition of museum space encompassing physical, social and conceptual domains. Dance, an art concerned with the shaping of space, is examined as a transformative force, productively intervening with the galleries, encounters, objects, and historical narratives comprising modern art museum space. In this study, purity and atemporality are identified as the preeminent principles organizing modern art museum space, and dance, an ‘impure’ and process-based art, is theorized as a productive contaminant, catalyzing change. Using this theoretical framework and Using this theoretical framework and evocative descriptions of Boris Charmatz’s 20 Dancers for the XX Century (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 18-20 October 2013), dance’s unique collaboration with modern art museum space is analyzed. Socially, dance’s multisensuality pollutes museum goers’ ocularcentric experiences with art. Conceptually, dance diversifies understandings of objects and the androcentric history they uphold. Physically, dance is carving out new spaces, with performance venues being incorporated into the ‘bones’ of high profile institutions. Interspersed between these analytical chapters, evocative descriptions of Spatial Confessions (On the Question of Instituting the Public) by Bojana Cvejić and collaborators (Tate Modern, London, 21-24 May 2014) introduce observations beyond the analytical scope, opening up the liminal spaces of this document to ongoing inquiry. This dissertation contributes a sustained analysis of dance’s spatial impact on modern art museums. By investigating how dance intervenes with the limitations of the white cube, it critiques this supposedly ‘blank’ space, questioning its continued supremacy within these institutions. Moreover, as dance is ushered into performance venues within the museum’s expanding domain, this dissertation interrogates the modern propensity for specialization and master narratives pervading the spaces of these institutions, despite decades of interventional artistic and curatorial practices.

On the Importance of the Americans With Disabilities Act at 30

2021 ◽  
pp. 104420732110369
Author(s):  
Peter Blanck
Keyword(s):  
Title I ◽  
Individual Difference ◽  
Americans With Disabilities Act ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Employment Discrimination ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
The Public ◽  
Title Iii ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Definition Of

This article offers a glimpse of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) of 1990, as amended by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (“ADAAA”), at its 30th anniversary. It considers current issues before the courts, primarily legal cases from 2020 and 2021, and new questions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, such the latitude of the ADA’s antidiscrimination protections and its definition of disability. It provides a quick primer on the basics of the ADA: employment discrimination under Title I, antidiscrimination mandates for state and local governments under Title II, and commands to places of accommodation offering services to the public under Title III. The ADA at 30 remains a beacon for a future in which all people, regardless of individual difference, will be welcomed as full and equal members of society.

scholarly journals Regulation, Registration and Social Work: An International Comparison

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 308-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Worsley ◽  
Liz Beddoe ◽  
Ken McLaughlin ◽  
Barbra Teater
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
Role And Function

Abstract The anticipated change of social work regulator in England from the Health and Care Professions Council to Social Work England in 2019 will herald the third, national regulator in seven years for the social work profession. Social Work England will be a new, bespoke, professionally specific regulator established as a non-departmental public body with a primary objective to protect the public. Looking globally, we can observe different approaches to the regulation of the social work profession—and many different stages of the profession’s regulatory journey between countries. Using a comparative policy analysis approach and case studies, this article looks more closely at three countries’ arrangements and attempts to understand why regulation might take the shape it does in each country. The case studies examine England, the USA (as this has a state approach, we focus on New York) and New Zealand, with contributions from qualified social work authors located within each country. We consider that there are three key elements to apply to analysis: definition of role and function, the construction of the public interest and the attitude to risk.

Capability versus efficiency: contracting out park and road services in Norway

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 474-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merethe Dotterud Leiren ◽  
Andrej Christian Lindholst ◽  
Ingjerd Solfjeld ◽  
Thomas Barfoed Randrup
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Road Maintenance ◽  
Contracting Out ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Service Production ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Local Road

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the extent of, rationales for and outcomes of contracting out in the local road and park sectors in Norway. For understanding the use of contracting out in local governments, it highlights the relevance of the capability perspective in organisational literature as an alternative to the standard efficiency perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on four expert interviews and survey data gathered from park and road managers in Norwegian municipalities in 2015. Findings – The study suggests that Norwegian municipalities primarily contract out park and road maintenance services when they do not have the capability to perform these services themselves. Cost concerns are also highlighted but of less importance. Moreover, lack of competition renders the use of contracting out as a potentially costly and less satisfying arrangement for organising service delivery. Research limitations/implications – While the scope is limited to one country, Norway, future research may benefit from the theoretical perspectives, which have been used. Practical implications – Policy guidelines should support a flexible use of various arrangements for service provision. Originality/value – The dominating view among proponents of marketisation in the public sector suggests that contracting out to private contractors is undertaken to enhance economic efficiency compared to keeping service production in-house. This study suggests that this is not always the case – even in “most likely” sectors such as park and road maintenance.

Understanding, Definition and Sanctioning of Organized Crime Under the Law of Republic of Kosovo

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Armend Podvorica
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Annual Report ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
The Public ◽  
Domains Of Life ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Legal Grounds

The presence and development of criminality in society dates back from the old ages to the present time, by transforming itself in various types of emergence, depending on the degree of social emancipation. In addition to social development processes, there are also changes from the viewpoint of ideas relating to the etymology of crime in society. In the beginning of XX century, the society dealt with drastic and dramatic changes in the whole domains of life, accompanied with changes in the form of occurrence of criminality in society. The term “organized crime” was originally used in 1896 in the annual report of Society for for the Crime Prevention in New York. In this report, the term was employed to define the acts of prostitution and gambling, protected by the public officers. Whereas, as far as Kosovo is concerned, the International Administration – UNMIK – promulgated the Regulation No. 2001/22 “On Measures against Organized Crime”. The Regulation No. 2001/22 provides the definition of the term organized crime where it sets forth the measures and penalties that may be imposed to participants of an organized crime, the basic and qualified forms. With the purpose of supplementing the legal grounds to combat and prevent the criminality in the country, the Kosovo Assembly promulgated on 6th July 2003 the “Provisional Criminal Code of Kosovo” [1] Provisional Criminal Code of Kosovo, Kosovo Assembly, Prishtina, 2003, which entered into force on 20th April 2004

scholarly journals Enacting governance through strategy: A comparative study of governance configurations in Sydney and Vienna

Urban Studies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 1075-1091 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christof Brandtner ◽  
Markus A Höllerer ◽  
Renate E Meyer ◽  
Martin Kornberger
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
City Government ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Central Claim ◽  
Sydney Australia

Over the past two decades, research has emphasised a shift from city government to urban governance. Such a shift brings about its very own challenges, namely governance gaps, uncertain configurations in governance and a limited capacity to act. In this paper, we argue that the concurrent rise of strategy documents in city administration addresses these challenges. Our central claim is that strategy documents can be understood as a distinct discursive device through which local governments enact aspired governance configurations. We illustrate our argument empirically using two prominent examples that, while showing similar features and characteristics, are anchored in different administrative traditions and institutional frameworks: the city administrations of Sydney, Australia, and Vienna, Austria. The contribution of the paper is to show how strategy documents enact governance configurations along four core dimensions: the setting in space and time, the definition of the public, the framing of the res publica and legitimacy issues. Moreover, our comparative analysis of Sydney and Vienna gives evidence of differences in governance configurations enacted through strategy documents.

THE NIGERIAN INVESTMENT AND SECURITIES ACT: DELINEATING ITS BOUNDARIES IN RELATION TO THE REGISTRATION OF SECURITIES

2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEORGE C. NNONA
Keyword(s):  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Rule Making

This article examines the requirement of the Nigerian Investment and Securities Act, 1999 (ISA) that securities be registered prior to being offered to the public, with a view to determining the limits (boundaries) of that requirement. It shows that the boundaries can be staked out along three dimensions: items excluded from the registration requirement because they are not caught by the definition of securities under the ISA; items that qualify as securities under the ISA's definition of that term but which are exempt from registration for various policy reasons (exempt securities); and items which are exempt only because of the nature of the transactions involved rather than the nature of the securities themselves (exempt transactions). It shows that while doubts about the limits of the registration requirement exist at some points where the boundaries cannot be readily staked out without interpretive difficulties, such doubts and the points in relation to which they exist are relatively residual, except in areas where the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission has in its rule-making manifested a misconception of its powers under the ISA.

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