Increase Citizen Participation Research Articles

ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN STATE JUDICIAL ELECTIONS: TOWARD GREATER JUDICIAL ACCOUNTABILITY?

The role of elections in promoting accountability to popular sentiment is a central tenet of democratic theory. The extent to which such accountability is enhanced in judicial elections in the American states, however, is threatened by low levels of citizen involvement in contests for the state judiciary—due in part to ballot roll‐off: many voters, though already at the polls, simply ignore judicial contests. Critics of elections as a means of selecting state judiciaries contend that high ballot roll‐off renders citizen participation too low for such elections to secure greater judicial accountability. This research—an analysis of seventy‐one Kentucky counties voting in recent state supreme court elections—suggests that an emerging electoral technology, the electronic voting machine, substantially reduces ballot roll‐off in judicial elections, thereby increasing citizen participation in state judicial elections. These findings have significant implications for the debate over judicial selection by popular ballot.

Elecciones, representación y gobernabilidad en un nuevo marco normativo. El nuevo gobierno en el Distrito Federal. Los retos de la gobernabilidad en el D.F.

¿Qué factores estimularon la democratización del Distrito Federal? A esta pregunta responde el autor del artículo al analizar elementos como el incremento de la participación ciudadana en los procesos electorales, la colegialidad y la confianza en el órgano electoral, entre otros. En el escrito se revisan, además, las condiciones generales de la votación en relación con las posibles motivaciones de los votantes para, finalmente, deducir las condiciones de gobernabilidad con las que inició el gobierno perredista, desde las perspectivas legal y política.

Federalismo y gobierno local

The democratization processes taking place in Latin American governments, forced to rethink the new relationship between the state and civil society and to imagine the forms of participation and representation in solving political conflicts that they have generated. The democratization process hasn’t been consolidated in the region, particularly in Mexico, because there are legacy "authoritarian enclaves" of the old political system that refuses to give way to the new. Decentralization increases the chances of true democracy through increased citizen participation, therefore, the deeper the roots of decentralization, the greater its strength. Federalism in these circumstances doesn’t have to mean the strengthening of federal structures in the states and municipalities, but rather, should be supported in strengthening the sovereignty of states and municipal autonomy, and is presented as the point arrival or culmination of decentralization and democratization process.

Foster family care in Korea

The main thrust of this article is to present a strategy for foster family care operation in Korea. The article is organized with five themes: a brief history of Korean foster care operation, the present condition and problems of foster family care, an operational plan, recommendations, and an overview of the American experience with foster family care to explore its implications for Korea. The authors make these recommendations in order to bring the true nature of foster care operation to Korea: strengthen financial aid and arrange special benefits for foster care families, provide intervention of professionals in foster care agencies, and increase community awareness and citizen participation.

The Use of Participative Mechanisms by Large Us Cities

: This paper presents an empirical examination of the mechanisms by which cities attempt to increase citizen participation in municipal government. The incidence of four types of citizen mechanisms, open government, information gathering, neighborhood environment, and coproduction, is assessed in US cities of population greater than 100,000. Patterns of citizen participation are probed and an overall ranking of cities in terms of the participative environment they foster is developed. The existence of a participative environment is found to be associated with city efforts to attract or retain middle class residents. The theoretical meaning of this relation is explored.

Saul D. Alinsky: An Applied Urban Symbolic Interactionist

Urban sociology and symbolic interaction theory share Robert E. Park as a leading figure, yet there has not been a tradition of applying symbolic interaction theory to issues of urban research. A convergence is suggested as urbanists are becoming aware of the importance of sentiments and symbols in organizing and motivating urban behavior, and symbolic interactionists increasingly are becoming interested in social structure. Saul D. Alinsky demonstrated an applied symbolic interactionist perspective in his efforts to develop organizations capable of strengthening community cohesiveness and increasing citizen participation and involvement in local affairs.

In-Depth Defense: A Scenario for the US Military Structure

The article presents an alternative defensive structure for the United States. Operating within the ideas offered by Johan Galtung in his research on transcendence of nuclear deterrence through transarmament, a plausible course of action is outlined. The process of transarmament would provide both superpowers with the means to escape their respective nuclear-dependent military doctrines. While this paper is only a thumbnail sketch of a paradigmatic shift from offensive to defensive national perceptions, its systemic orientation does suggest that transarmament is a possible future. It is a future whereby the US can increase world stability with little risk to its own legitimate national interests. The cost is in surrendering the role of world policeman. As a process of transcending offensive foreign policies, its strength lies in an increase in citizen participation and a total rejection of offensive strategies and weapon systems. The military will be structured to include both a Civil Defense (with a non-violent functional capability) and local militia (citizen soldiers). This deepening of policy-making will reinforce the other changes necessary for a defensively oriented and invulnerable country. The former is vital for the rest of the world and the latter is necessary for the self-interests of the US.

Federal Administration of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 in Oklahoma

SMCRA, which established detailed standards for the surface mining of coal, attempted to balance the need to increase coal production with safeguarding the environment. The act was based on the principle of cooperativefederalism. The states were offered both positive and negative inducements to assume important roles in the design and implementation of regulatory programs consistent with the SMCRA. Oklahoma's Department of Mines (DOM) carried out the provisions of the act so poorly that the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) was compelled to take over SMCRA inspection and enforcement. Otherprovisions of the act were administered by DOM, which found itself in a condition of cohabitation with OSMfrom 1984-1987. During that time, DOM became a stronger, technologically sophisticated agency; OSM gained a greater appreciation of the difficulties of implementing a state program; the mining industry became reconciled to reclamation contemporaneous with mining; and there was an increase in citizen participation. The return of primacy to Oklahoma may usher in a new federal relationship in surface mining regulation, with more power shifting to the states as budget pressures reduce funds and the number of employees in OSM.

Crime on the subways: Measuring the effectiveness of the guardian angels

For the past several decades, criminal justice practitioners and observers have begun to suggest that our crime problems cannot be solved without increased levels of citizen involvement. Advocates of this philosophy were especially fueled by research throughout the 1970s—such as that conducted in Kansas City on patrol and by the Rand Corporation on detectives—which showed that the police were largely unable to deter and prevent crime and that citizens, far more than police, solved crimes. In response, many communities have begun to actively promote methods aimed at increasing citizen participation in law enforcement. In other communities, many private groups have organized on their own initiative to become actively involved in crime prevention and fighting. Despite the rapid proliferation of these citizen action organizations, few efforts have been made to determine their effectiveness in reducing either crime or its related fear. Since this question is so central to decisions concerning the role these or...

HUD Block Grant Program In Rural Illinois

This paper reviews the process and organization used to apply for and secure block grants under the Housing and Urban Development Block Grant program in several Illinois counties. The topics to be discussed include a brief look at the art of grantsmanship, an explanation of the Hun Block Grant Act of 1974, a discussion of the methods and techniques used to form county-wide citizens’ committees to initiate the proposals, and some reflections on the application process as it relates to increasing citizen participation and intergovernmental cooperation.

Citizen participation and health care: problems of government induced participation.

In this paper we trace the implications of some common contradictions in government-inspired efforts to increase citizen participation in health care delivery. We cover general problems of generating citizen participation, specific difficulties in community organization resulting when issues of health are the organizing focus, and the benefits that were thought to result from efforts to increase citizen participation in social programs in the 1960's. When programs focused on increased citizen participation were initiated program administrators attempted to maximize citizen involvement quickly by: projecting an image of maximal social impact; minimizing or ignoring questions of long-term fiscal uncertainty; projecting an image of maximal control by citizens; and projecting images of institutional solidarity and of experimentation and innovation. They tended to recruit to the staff social activists taken to be representative of the community (although they might not be), promising opportunities for upward mobility. They also tended to adopt conciliatory administrative styles in keeping with their experimental non-elitist orientations. These tendencies characteristic of the initiation phase of projects conflicted with the demands placed upon programs in later phases of program implementation. These demands resulted from later perceived needs to: evaluate programs; limit spending; counter internal organizational opposition; and respond to sponsors' shifting interests. Paraprofessionals recruited to the staff tended to lose their "community" orientation, and administrative style tended to focus considerably more on program accountability. These shifting program demands substantially account for what otherwise appears to be the failure of efforts to increase citizens' participation in health delivery programs, and, by extension, in other areas where the impetus for increased citizen participation comes from government initiatives.

The Pro and Con Arguments

After a brief review of the forces which shaped the general revenue sharing legislation, this article investigates thoroughly various pro and con arguments about the program. While there may be a variety of theoretical "pro" arguments, the primary argument in favor of general revenue sharing is that is is politically popular with the public officials who are recipients of the funds. This article also explores the arguments that general rev enue sharing leads to increased citizen participation and fewer administrative requirements for recipient units, and that it increases the strength of the central administration. It urges caution in interpreting the preliminary research results which are available. On the "con" side, it considers a variety of theoretical arguments, but the main emphasis must be on the inequities in the existing legislation. These include the reduction in categorical aid programs, the failure to provide adequately for the largest cities, the inapplicability of fiscal crisis arguments, and the absence of important "side benefits"—institution building, for example—from general revenue sharing legislation. Finally, there is a discussion of the discriminatory provisions and enforcement procedures of the legislation. The dilemma which revenue sharing and the former categorical grant programs were designed to meet is best resolved by strengthening and expanding the block grant approach to federal aid.

Why Increase Citizen Participation Among Ghetto Residents?

Despite recent community organization efforts and some government programs emphasizing local input, there is still a low degree of citizen participation and community control in the black ghetto. This condition has been well documented, and its causes have been subjected to a great deal of analysis. Camille Jeffers (1967) discussed powerlessness, both real and imagined, among ghetto residents. Nathan Wright (1968), in his brilliant analysis of the Newark riot situation, provides similar documentation and analysis of the problem. Wright traced the outcomes of several public issues relating to black people in New Jersey and found in every instance that the preferences of the black community were disregarded by the officials who ultimately made the decisions. Various studies have shown that the general absence of meaningful local control in the black ghetto is due to several factors, including the following: neighborhood instability (due largely to urban renewal disruptions; Wilson, 1967: 288); few influential positions are held by the poor (Waterman, 1966:

Is greater citizen participation in planning possible and desirable?

A review of present research suggests that significant alterations in democratic forms of government are possible in coming decades due to new communications technologies. Increasing citizen participation in planning is considered desirable due to the growth of planning in a democratic society, the need to restore a psychological balance between available information and decision making opportunities the need for common forums in a society fractionated by multiple communication channels, and the potential for improving the responsiveness of government to the public at large. The advocates of citizen feedback hold a position distinct from the views of establishment social scientists, technocratic planners and radical community activities.

Citizens in Local Politics: Nonparticipation and “Unrepresentation“

Certain orientations to community development view communities, in a sense, “from the bottom up” and emphasize the importance of increased citizen participation. Other approaches favor working with identified community leaders and emphasize the importance of representation from many or all segments of the community. There are difficulties with both approaches, of course. This paper explores some important relationships between “non-participation” and “unrepresentation”-the problems of the respective approaches.The term, “stable unrepresentation,” si.gnifies a condition certain groups find themselves in, in our political system, a condition-despite “pluralism”in which, in the give-and-take of politics, they practically never “take.” Pluralism implies that decisions in most American communities are n1ade by leadership structures that are diverse rather than homogenous and more or less competitive rather than unified. Decisions are made by “competitive elites,” and most segments of American communities are represented to some degree or another among these elites. However, despite the large number of interests that are represented, there are other groups who are nearly always excluded. These latter groups have been described as “stably unrepresented.” This is one major concept that will be explored more fully as this paper proceeds.A second major point is that few average or lower-status citizens actually participate in community decision-making, despite the high regard generally accorded the idea of “citizen participation.”Recent work in political science, political sociology, and related fields suggests important interactions between these conditions. Increased under-standingof these interactions, by theorists and practitioners alike, should go far toward more effective and democratic community developmentregardless of one's preference for “bottom-up” or “top-down” approaches.