Municipal Government and the Interactive Web

2012 ◽  
pp. 251-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedict S. Jimenez ◽  
Karen Mossberger ◽  
Yonghong Wu
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Information Customization

What opportunities do citizens have to interact with government online at the local level? This study uses content analysis of the websites of the 75 largest U.S. cities to identify the extent to which they integrate features that allow online information customization and online citizen participation. Completed from March-May 2009, the coding includes analysis of Web 2.0 applications and older web-based tools such as citizen surveys, online town meetings, and other features relevant to citizen engagement. The study finds that municipal governments have steadily developed their online capacity to provide information to local residents, but new media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube remain underutilized. Local e-government has yet to evolve as a tool to advance deliberative democracy, but some opportunities for input have increased. An initial analysis indicates that cities with large African-American and Latino populations have less interactive websites, and that larger cities are likely to have more participatory opportunities online.

Municipal Government and the Interactive Web

2012 ◽  
pp. 100-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedict S. Jimenez ◽  
Karen Mossberger ◽  
Yonghong Wu
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Information Customization

What opportunities do citizens have to interact with government online at the local level? This study uses content analysis of the websites of the 75 largest U.S. cities to identify the extent to which they integrate features that allow online information customization and online citizen participation. Completed from March-May 2009, the coding includes analysis of Web 2.0 applications and older web-based tools such as citizen surveys, online town meetings, and other features relevant to citizen engagement. The study finds that municipal governments have steadily developed their online capacity to provide information to local residents, but new media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube remain underutilized. Local e-government has yet to evolve as a tool to advance deliberative democracy, but some opportunities for input have increased. An initial analysis indicates that cities with large African-American and Latino populations have less interactive websites, and that larger cities are likely to have more participatory opportunities online.

The Economic Impact of the Bourbon Reforms and the Late Colonial Crisis of Empire at the Local Level: The Case of Saltillo, 1777-1817

1988 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Cuello
Keyword(s):  
Municipal Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Spanish American ◽  
American Empire ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Royal Authority ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
State Apparatus ◽  
Bourbon Reforms

The massive efforts of the Bourbon monarchs of the late colonial period to give their Spanish-American empire a modern state apparatus, extract more revenues from it, and defend it effectively from foreign interlopers involved an unprecedented assertion of royal authority at all levels of government, including the local one. Municipal government throughout the Americas became both an object of reform and one of the chief instruments of Bourbon reorganization at ground level. All the major activities and changes that required direct contact with the general population, from the taking of censuses and the establishment of militia units to the imposition of new taxes and the reorganization of the colonial financial structure, depended on municipal governments for their effective implementation. When the world wars for empires among Britain, France, and Spain reached a crisis stage for the Bourbons with Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808, the municipal governments became even more vital to the maintenance of the viceroyalties and the survival of the Spanish monarchy.

scholarly journals XarxaSalut, network of municipalities for health, Valencia Region (Spain): policy process evaluation

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
R Peiró Pérez ◽  
E Pérez Sanz ◽  
E Legaz Sanchez ◽  
J Quiles Izquierdo ◽  
Grupo XarxaSalut
Keyword(s):  
Process Evaluation ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Economic Support ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
The Impact

Abstract “XarxaSalut” started in 2017, with the municipalities that have taken the commitment to boost the Promotion of Health (HP) at the local level through community participation, intersectorality and equity perspective. The objective is to present a policy process evaluation (2'5 years) of the implementation of XarxaSalut. Different approaches have been used; a questionnaire addressed to the municipalities at the time of adhesion including data on intersectorality, participation, HP actions and open questions; description of instruments that Regional Public Health Authorities (RPHA) has mobilized and an analysis of barriers and strengths made by the coordination office. In 2017, 17 municipalities were joined, being 197 in February 2020 (70% of the population). 65% are in a process of an organizational change through the intersectoral, decision making and participative working group. 35% are doing analysis of determinants and /or health situation, assets maps and a prioritization of HP actions. The main barriers identified by municipalities are lack of economic and personal resources, and difficulties in achieve citizen participation. The main benefits were the optimization of resources, the exchange of experiences, training, or economic support from the RPHA. Some support instruments develop for RPHA are a collection of guides for community development, funds that the municipalities can apply to support actions related with training, HP action on vulnerable population, on asset maps, participation processes, vulnerable neighborhoods, etc.; Community actions have been included in the “Health Observatory” to give visibility and social support to XarxaSalut. Interdisciplinary training processes with health and municipal professionals have been made in order to develop a common language and strength the competences for HP. Lesson learned: The need to improve coordination and a common language between different types of participants and professionals Key messages The decision makers and professionals in the municipalities understand the impact in health of the policies developed at local level but needs guide and support to deal with it. The coordination between different administrations and primary health at local level and the misunderstandings about health and their determinants are the main aspect to reinforce.

A Municipal Tail

2021 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 398-436
Author(s):  
Sean McCaskill
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
State Expansion ◽  
Animal Control ◽  
Extension Of State

This project examines municipal animal control in Los Angeles between 1880 and 1909. It traces the emergence of municipal animal control from the confluence of animal welfare reform and progressive state expansion. The animal welfare movement in the United States began in the Colonial Era, but soon reflected the influence of changing attitudes in Europe and the rise of anti-cruelty reform movements after the Civil War. As Americans sought to create a better world out of the ashes of that war, many looked towards animal welfare. This movement occurred first on the East Coast, beginning with Henry Bergh’s founding of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in 1866, and reached Los Angeles by the end of the century. Many in that growing city viewed the dawn of the twentieth century with optimism, hoping for L.A.’s ascendancy into the ranks of the nation’s great metropolises. As a result, they began to look at the city’s problems through an increasingly progressive lens. Newspapers had covered the animal impoundment system’s brutality since the 1880s, but by the end of the century, they carried dramatic exposés of cruelties and corruption at the pound that emphasized connections to larger social issues. Citizens, including an impressive number of women, became activists for animal welfare. The municipal government responded by passing an ordinance that put animal control in the hands of the Humane Animal League, a private animal welfare organization. When the League failed to handle the city’s burgeoning animal population humanely and efficiently, the city assumed responsibility for animal control and created a municipal system. The emergence of municipal animal control in Los Angeles demonstrates a city turning to the extension of state power at the local level to create a more humane and efficient world for both its human and animal inhabitants.

Online maps and minorities: Geotagging Thailand’s Muslims

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Wall ◽  
Treepon Kirdnark
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Western Country ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Participatory Media ◽  
Online Maps ◽  
Opening Up

This article examines whether participatory media such as Flickr, with its seemingly unfettered tools for mapping citizen-created photographs, offers a means for a more comprehensive representation of minorities in a non-Western country. Assessment of geotags – markers designating longitude and latitude on an online map – associated with photographs of Thailand’s Muslims suggests that by replicating common stereotypes, user-generated content may be limiting rather than opening up discourses about minorities and that citizen participation via new media tools is more constrained and less free than commonly believed.

scholarly journals Drought and Water Shortages: South Carolina’s Response Mechanisms, Vulnerabilities, and Needs

2017 ◽  
pp. 57-62
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Altman ◽  
Kirsten Lackstrom ◽  
Hope Mizzell
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Water Shortage ◽  
Drought Response ◽  
The South ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Emergency Operations ◽  
Emergency Operations Center

The South Carolina Drought and Water Shortage Tabletop Exercise took place on September 27, 2017, at the South Carolina Emergency Operations Center in West Columbia, SC. The exercise gathered 80 participants, representing federal and state agencies, public water suppliers, county and municipal governments, industry, consulting companies, and nonprofit organizations. The purpose of the exercise was to review plans and procedures that govern state-, basin-, and local-level responses to drought and water shortages. Many of South Carolina’s drought response mechanisms were updated by the 2000 Drought Response Act and Regulations, but a systematic effort has not been made to review or assess their effectiveness. Attendees walked through a series of exercise responses to gradually worsening drought scenarios and an activation of the Emergency Operations Plan. The event helped to identify strengths and weak points of the state’s drought response and opportunities to proactively prepare for future droughts. The key needs discussed by participants included updated drought response plans and procedures to ensure a coordinated and timely response to droughts; greater educational opportunities to enhance agencies’ familiarity with the Drought Response Program and their role in drought response and mitigation; more effective communications before, during, and after drought events, across agencies and with the public; and enhanced data and information products that can be used to build common understanding of drought risks, impacts, and vulnerabilities.

scholarly journals Digital Civic Participation and Misinformation during the 2020 Taiwanese Presidential Election

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-157
Author(s):  
Ho-Chun Herbert Chang ◽  
Samar Haider ◽  
Emilio Ferrara
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
The Political ◽  
Online Engagement ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Critical Case Study ◽  
Emergent Coordination

From fact-checking chatbots to community-maintained misinformation databases, Taiwan has emerged as a critical case-study for citizen participation in politics online. Due to Taiwan’s geopolitical history with China, the recent 2020 Taiwanese Presidential Election brought fierce levels of online engagement led by citizens from both sides of the strait. In this article, we study misinformation and digital participation on three platforms, namely Line, Twitter, and Taiwan’s Professional Technology Temple (PTT, Taiwan’s equivalent of Reddit). Each of these platforms presents a different facet of the elections. Results reveal that the greatest level of disagreement occurs in discussion about incumbent president Tsai. Chinese users demonstrate emergent coordination and selective discussion around topics like China, Hong Kong, and President Tsai, whereas topics like Covid-19 are avoided. We discover an imbalance of the political presence of Tsai on Twitter, which suggests partisan practices in disinformation regulation. The cases of Taiwan and China point toward a growing trend where regular citizens, enabled by new media, can both exacerbate and hinder the flow of misinformation. The study highlights an overlooked aspect of misinformation studies, beyond the veracity of information itself, that is the clash of ideologies, practices, and cultural history that matter to democratic ideals.

Who Rules?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Heldman
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Policy Issue ◽  
Economic Democracy ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
Corporate Power ◽  
Consumer Activism ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Models Of Democracy

This chapter applies participatory, deliberative, and economic models of democracy to consumer activism to determine whether it is an effective check on overbearing corporate power. This chapter begins with an analysis of when and how corporate power has grown in the U.S. It concludes that consumer activism strengthens participatory democracy by increasing rates of citizen participation and fostering self-governance; improves deliberative democracy by encouraging public discussion of policy issue; and strengthens economic democracy by democratizing the corporate sphere. Compared to traditional forms of participation, consumer activism is easier to engage, but limited by its episodic, reactive nature.

Need for Rethinking Modern Urban Planning Strategies Through Integration of ICTs

2018 ◽  
pp. 7843-7855
Author(s):  
Rounaq Basu ◽  
Arnab Jana
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Open Innovation ◽  
Minimum Cost ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Planning Strategies ◽  
Urban Problems ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
Geocoded Data ◽  
Modern Technologies

Recent progresses in ICTs have paved the way for innovative services, and interactive models and tools. Citizen participation and open innovation have become essential tools for urban planners. These concepts can be implemented through the crowdsourcing model, which is a people-centric approach to solve societal problems using Web 2.0 technologies. This has led to the collection and sharing of geocoded data through GIS. The large amount of data required is one of the drawbacks of GIS. However, collecting such data within short durations at minimum cost has now become possible through development of web-based surveys coupled with use of DBMS. The effectiveness and importance of these three tools (Crowdsourcing, GIS, and DBMS) in modern and future urban planning strategies cannot be undermined. In conclusion, the authors argue that integration of urban policies, modern technologies and fundamental concepts of engineering will lead to discovery of new solutions to important age-old urban problems.

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