This volume is an authoritative description of a little-recognized element of modern governance: associations of public officials in state and local government. These associations, whose membership consists of elected and appointed officials such as mayors, legislators, council members, city and county managers, and planners, play an often overlooked role in public administration and governmental policy on state and local levels. This work provides an incisive analysis of their role using a combination of documentary sources and extensive personal interviews with a special interest in association management. It traces the historical development of associations from 1890 to 1990 within the context of the Progressive Movement, the New Deal, the Great Society, and the era of cutbacks and devolution. In addition, an examination of the effects of associations in the evolving administrative state touches upon many of the most important topics in public administration, including intergovernmental relations, by professionalism, ethics, and leadership. The text is augmented by an appendix of association profiles, an annotated bibliography, and an index.

A guide to national organizations of state and local governments and associations of public officials with an interest in public employee-management relations.

Local Government Law provides a unique resource with concise, easy-to-understand explanations of important legal issues faced by local public officials, community boards, and city councils. From the moment officials take office, they face decisions related to basic principles found in state and federal law. The same is true for those in the private sector aiming to work successfully with local governments. This practical guidebook will empower public and private representatives with a functional grasp of legal principles, with chapters explaining what a local government is, the requirement to follow due process, local land use controls, the basics of the Freedom of Information Act, and many other important subjects that regularly arise. As a practical guidebook on local government law, this book provides a basic and empowering understanding for officials and private actors in the local government arena.

Local governments do not stand alone—they find themselves in new relationships not only with state and federal government, but often with a widening spectrum of other public and private organizations as well. The result of this re-forming of local governments calls for new collaborations and managerial responses that occur in addition to governmental and bureaucratic processes-as-usual, bringing locally generated strategies or what the authors call "jurisdiction-based management" into play. Based on an extensive study of 237 cities within five states, Collaborative Public Management provides an in-depth look at how city officials work with other governments and organizations to develop their city economies and what makes these collaborations work. Exploring the more complex nature of collaboration across jurisdictions, governments, and sectors, Agranoff and McGuire illustrate how public managers address complex problems through strategic partnerships, networks, contractual relationships, alliances, committees, coalitions, consortia, and councils as they function together to meet public demands through other government agencies, nonprofit associations, for-profit entities, and many other types of nongovernmental organizations. Beyond the "how" and "why," Collaborative Public Management identifies the importance of different managerial approaches by breaking them down into parts and sequences, and describing the many kinds of collaborative activities and processes that allow local governments to function in new ways to address the most nettlesome public challenges.

Originally published in 1980, state and local governments handle a lot of the systems that are used and we come into contact with on a daily basis. This text contains a wide range of essays that define the important questions in the field, critically evaluate where we are in answering them, and set the direction and terms of discourse for future work