Sanctions on Local Government Officials: Evidence from China

A Study of Local Government in Africa through Participatory Action Research (PAR)

How a government responds to, manages, and communicates about crisis has direct implications for public well‐being and ultimately shapes public opinion about local governments and government officials. Yet, little is known about crisis preparation, especially that of local governments. Local governments are involved in managing any crisis situation that affects their communities, regardless of the responsible organization or nature of the crisis. This study surveys local government officials (N = 307) in 44 states across the United States who manage crisis communication to reveal unique considerations of planning, magnitude and citizen satisfaction on crisis management. Novel findings are revealed with respect to each variable to direct future crisis research, particularly that informing the precrisis stage.

This article assesses the potential for expanding regional planning by asking local government officials their perspectives on the potential for increasing regionalism in their communities, and the most promising approaches to achieving greater regionalism. The study involves analysing data from a recent survey of local government officials in Michigan. It is found that support for regional planning declines amongst local officials who are already heavily involved in regional efforts and increases amongst those who perceive greater fiscal challenges. However, local government officials who support expanding regional planning are less supportive of working through existing regional institutions; they prefer to create new regional entities to pursue additional co-operation. Those with experience with regional planning efforts are more supportive of working through existing institutions.

: Local government officials are key decision-makers in the implementation of civil defense programs on the local level. As local officials are given new tasks in civil defense, they understand their roles to varying degrees. The report focuses on (1) the extent to which local officials understand their own civil defense roles, (2) the extent to which they understand the civil defense roles of other local officials, (3) the local officials' evaluations of their own civil defense role performances, and (4) their evaluations of the civil defense role performances of other local officials. Findings are stated. Implications are drawn from the findings for change agents.

: Local government officials are key decision-makers in the implementation of civil defense programs on the local level. As local officials are given new tasks in civil defense, they understand their roles to varying degrees. The report focuses on (1) the extent to which local officials understand their own civil defense roles, (2) the extent to which they understand the civil defense roles of other local officials, (3) the local officials' evaluations of their own civil defense role performances, and (4) their evaluations of the civil defense role performances of other local officials. Findings are stated. Implications are drawn from the findings for change agents.

The article examines how local government officials in Sweden use social media and to what extent the emergence of social media has altered the relationship to conventional news media. The article examines the development of local government-media relations across time on the basis of a unique survey-based data set comparing the local political and administrative leadership’s media strategies in 1989 and 2010. The 2010 survey also included questions on how local officials in Sweden use social media in their work, that is, Facebook, Twitter and blogs. The results show that local officials have appropriated social media in their work, but only to a moderate extent. Local officials engage in social media if and when the local government becomes the target of social media scrutiny. Our study also demonstrates that social media have not replaced conventional media as a means of communication with constituencies. Indeed, officials who are active social media users have more contacts with conventional media compared to less active officials. Social media thus contribute to an intensification of the mediatisation of local governance rather than replacing conventional media in local political communication.

The article examines how local government officials in Sweden use social media and to what extent the emergence of social media has altered the relationship to conventional news media. The article examines the development of local government-media relations across time on the basis of a unique survey-based data set comparing the local political and administrative leadership's media strategies in 1989 and 2010. The 2010 survey also included questions on how local officials in Sweden use social media in their work, that is, Facebook, Twitter and blogs. The results show that local officials have appropriated social media in their work, but only to a moderate extent. Local officials engage in social media if and when the local government becomes the target of social media scrutiny. Our study also demonstrates that social media have not replaced conventional media as a means of communication with constituencies. Indeed, officials who are active social media users have more contacts with conventional media compared to less active officials. Social media thus contribute to an intensification of the mediatisation of local governance rather than replacing conventional media in local political communication.

The market economy operates by individuals or firms responding to various price signals. These signals become incentives that guide individual behavior and determine output of private sector. Decisionmakers in public sector also respond to signals and incentives, although of a different nature. For example, there are major incentives for local elected officials to avoid property tax increases, while at same time maintaining at least existing levels of public services. A local official's public support, his effectiveness in implementing his programs, and ultimately his reelection chances are influenced by his success in avoiding property tax increases. Traditionally, local officials believe that increasing local property tax base will stabilize or reduce property tax rate. Increased tax base thus becomes a major policy objective of many local governments [Wadsworth 1974] .' The fiscal impact of tax base changes and incentives faced by local government officials are subtly but critically changed by drive for equal educational opportunity. In early 1970s, constitutionality of school finance systems which rely heavily on property tax was challenged in courts throughout nation [Wynkoop 1974]. Plaintiffs argued that such sysoperates by ini s es o ding to various . s si als beco e inceni i i i ual behavior and tems deny equal educational opportunity to children in property-poor districts, since quality of education (defined as expenditures per pupil) is a function of school district wealth.2 It was shown that in spite of fact that property-poor districts tend to tax at higher rates, their expenditures per pupil are considerably less than in wealthy districts which tax at lower rates. In several states, courts ordered educational finance reform, insisting, in words of a Minnesota court, that the level of

Suicide is a major public health issue. In Japan, local governments are responsible for suicide prevention, and local government officers are therefore expected to act as gatekeepers for suicide prevention. In this study, through a questionnaire survey, the authors examined the current knowledge and attitudes concerning suicide prevention among local government officers and healthcare and welfare professionals, and the effects of providing suicide prevention education on their knowledge of and attitudes toward suicide and its prevention. One hundred eighty-three local government officers and 432 healthcare/welfare professionals completed the survey before and after a single education session. Before the session, the local government officers and healthcare/welfare professionals showed mainly positive attitudes toward suicide prevention efforts, with little difference between the two groups. After the training, knowledge and attitudes were further improved for most questionnaire items. Respondents with one or more experiences of suicide prevention training showed significantly more knowledge and positive attitudes before the training than those with no such experience. Moreover, knowledge of depression and having a sympathetic attitude were found to be especially associated with the overall attitude that “suicide can be prevented”. Training in suicide prevention was shown to be effective in promoting appropriate knowledge and attitudes among local government officers and healthcare/welfare professionals who are gatekeepers for preventing suicide. Our findings confirm the importance of suicide prevention education, and will contribute to creating a standard educational program on suicide prevention in Japan.

Parks and recreation provide extensive health, quality of life, and community benefits. Yet their ability to deliver quality services relies on funding and supportive policies—both of which are decided largely by local government officials, both elected and appointed (e.g., town/city manager, town/city council members, mayors, etc.). Given their role as a decision-making stakeholder, it is important to understand local officials’ priorities and how well they feel parks and recreation contribute to these. This knowledge will allow for the development of management strategies to better position parks and recreation among officials. This national study (n=648) examined local officials’ community priorities relative to their perceptions of parks and recreations’ contributions. Officials from various types of local governments (e.g., town, city, county) were asked to indicate how important they believed a variety of priorities were in their communities and the extent to which they felt parks and recreation contributed to these. While officials deemed all community priorities to be important, attracting and retaining businesses, youth development, and quality of life were rated highest. Local officials perceived the greatest contributions from parks and recreation relative to quality of life, youth development, and health. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) with a mean quadrant approach suggested attracting and retaining businesses as an area to concentrate, youth development and quality of life as areas to keep up the good work, and growth management and social equity/social justice as areas of low priority for officials. Gap score analysis revealed the largest deficiencies between importance and performance for attracting and retaining businesses, growth management, youth development, and social equity/ social justice. While IPA would suggest increasing efforts only in the concentrate here quadrant, gap analysis demonstrated the need to work to elevate perceptions of park and recreation’s performance for additional priorities. Subscribe to JPRA

We test the hypothesis that local government officials in jurisdictions that have higher local sales taxes are more likely to use fiscal zoning to attract retailing. We find that total retail employment is not significantly affected by local sales tax rates, but employment in big box and anchor stores is higher significantly in jurisdictions with higher sales tax rates. This suggests that local officials in jurisdictions with higher sales tax rates concentrate on attracting large stores and shopping centers. We also find that the effect of local sales taxes on big box and anchor store retail employment is larger in county interiors, where residents tend to be captive to local retailers. Finally, fiscal zoning has the opposite effect on manufacturing employment, suggesting that local officials' efforts to attract shopping centers and large stores crowd out manufacturing.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen Program focuses on overcoming critical barriers to the widespread use of hydrogen fuel cell technology. The transition to a new, hydrogen-based energy economy requires an educated human infrastructure. With this in mind, the DOE Hydrogen Program conducted statistical surveys to measure and establish baselines for understanding and awareness about hydrogen, fuel cells, and a hydrogen economy. The baseline data will serve as a reference in designing an education program, and it will be used in comparisons with future survey results (2008 and 2011) to measure changes in understanding and awareness. Scientific sampling was used to survey four populations: (1) the general public, ages 18 and over; (2) students, ages 12-17; (3) state and local government officials; and (4) potential large-scale hydrogen users. It was decided that the survey design should include about 1,000 individuals in each of the general public and student categories, about 250 state and local officials, and almost 100 large-scale end users. The survey questions were designed to accomplish specific objectives. Technical questions measured technical understanding and awareness of hydrogen technology. Opinion questions measured attitudes about safety, cost, the environment, and convenience, as well as the likelihood of future applications more » of hydrogen technology. For most of the questions, I don't know or I have no were acceptable answers. Questions about information sources assessed how energy technology information is received. The General Public and Student Survey samples were selected by random digit dialing. Potential large-scale end users were selected by random sampling. The State and Local Government Survey was of the entire targeted population of government officials (not a random sample). All four surveys were administered by computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). For each population, the length of the survey was less than 15 minutes. Design of an education program is beyond the scope of the report, and comparisons of the baseline data with future results will not be made until the survey is fielded again. Nevertheless, a few observations about the data are salient: For every population group, average scores on the technical knowledge questions were lower for the fuel cell questions than for the other technical questions. State and local officials expressed more confidence in hydrogen safety than large-scale end users, and they were much more confident than either the general public or students. State and local officials also scored much higher on the technical questions. Technical understanding appears to influence opinions about safety. For the General Public, Student, and Large-Scale End User Surveys, respondents with above-average scores on the eleven technical questions were more likely to have an opinion about hydrogen technology safety, and for those respondents who expressed an opinion, their opinion was more likely to be positive. These differences were statistically significant. Using criteria of Sometimes or Frequently to describe usage, respondents rated media sources for obtaining energy information. The general public and students responded that television is the primary media source of energy information. State and local officials and large-scale end users indicated that their primary media sources are newspapers, the Internet, and science and technology journals. In order of importance, the general public values safety, cost, environment, and convenience. The Large-Scale End User Survey suggests that there is presently little penetration of hydrogen technology; nor is there much planning for it. « less

This chapter aims to discuss the potential of mass media, especially social media, for reshaping the mode of local governance in China by examining how social media prevalence influences local government responsiveness to online public inquiries and online civic engagement in 31 provincial-level administrative divisions in China. It first introduces mass media as an indispensable part of governance by briefly reviewing the social function of mass media. Afterward, it focuses on how social media can afford the interactions between local governments, including local governmental agencies and officials, and various social actors in the process of local governance in China. Through the analysis of the aggregate data regarding social media prevalence, local government responsiveness, and civic engagement in 31 provincial-level administrative divisions in China, the results show that social media in general contributes to local government responsiveness to online public inquiries and online civic engagement. Specifically, local governmental agencies tend to respond to public inquiries more actively than local government officials on social media, and citizens tend to discuss local affairs more frequently with local governmental agencies than with local government officials on social media. The findings indicate the promising role of social media in improving local government responsiveness and advancing civic engagement but reveal that local government officials’ underuse of social media might constrain the development of good local governance in China. It concludes with an outlook into the future of digitalized local governance in China.

This report presents information from Michigan’s local government officials regarding the status of medical marijuana facilities in their jurisdictions as of spring 2018, as well as officials’ opinions on the impacts of medical marijuana on local communities. In addition, the report looks at local officials’ support for or opposition to legalizing recreational marijuana. These findings are based on statewide surveys of local government leaders in the Spring 2018 wave of the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS).

This article discusses the behavior of Members of the Republic of Indonesia's Representative Council (DPR RI) in the 2014-2019 period in exercising their powers. DPR members for the 2014-201 period were 17 sentenced to imprisonment by the Corruption Court (Corruption), and involved Provincial Government Officials, Local Government Officials and Entrepreneurs. The question is how is the relationship model of DPR RI members, Local Government Officials, and Entrepreneurs doing corruption? What environment supports the ongoing corruption of DPR members. Forms of corruption DPR members receive money from Local Government Officers of Maluku Province, North Maluku Province, and Local Government Officials of Deiyai Regency, Papua Province. The Model of Relationship between Members of the DPR and Local Government Officials, and the relations between Regional Officials and Entrepreneurs are mutually beneficial. Members of the House of Representatives receive money for their services to fight for regional government development projects. Local Government officials are willing to give money to DPR members, approval of the proposed development project is approved by the DPR according to his proposal. Local Government Official money comes from Entrepreneurs who will carry out regional development projects.The environment that supports the corrupt behavior of DPR members comes from the environment of DPR members who mutually support and cooperate in obtaining money, the process of becoming a DPR member who needs a lot of money, hidden support from party elites, the interests of Provincial Government Officials to obtain development budgets according to their proposals, support indirectly from the entrepreneur.