Strategic Planning for Local Government, second edition, outlines the strategic planning process in local government and helps local government leaders anticipate and shape the future of their communities. It covers practical ways of obtaining information, analyzing that information, and developing a vision for the community that can be translated into programs and line items in a budget. This e-book offers many excerpts from local government plans and working documents that serve as examples you can build upon. These models can be customized for your local government. Videos highlight the role professional local government managers play in building communities we're proud to call home.

This book shows how and why strategic planning is working in cities around the country. It illustrates how this technique enables a city to plan its future proactively and shows how local governments use it to solve current problems and make sure they continue to reach their goals. Using seventeen case studies from a diverse mix of cities, it outlines the components of successful strategic planning, including program design, needs and capabilities assessment, implementation, and ongoing evaluation. In this book, you'll see how planners use strategic planning to synthesize population trends, economic conditions, business trends, strategies, and objectives. The authors emphasize that the planning process is not entirely theoretical; real world factors-like support from politicians-is crucial. This casebook includes discussion questions with each case. Also included is a chapter devoted solely to a strategic planning model. These features make the book valuable not only to planners on the job but also to students in planning and public administration.

This book explores goal-oriented action and describes the variety of options offered by strategic management in guiding public organisations. The book is based on the idea that planning is only one option in orienting the functioning of public organisations and applies resource-based and network studies to the public sector. Whilst most of the existing literature on strategic management relates to local government, this book examines developments within central governments and public agencies external to government hierarchies. The book also addresses the strategic distinction between politics and administration often neglected by existing research, and illustrates the connection between goal setting and actual performance of government organisations.

With a strong focus on the operational side of the process, Plant explores the role of strategic planning in improving continuity across organizational staff and departments.The popular narrative is that the strategic planning process can reveal new initiatives and fresh ideas for the organization to pursue. While this outcome is obviously valuable, and undoubtedly necessary to stay current and ahead of public sector changes, it is equally important to understand the step-by-step development of how strategic plans take shape, are eventually implemented, and the results subsequently monitored. With Plant's ability to break down the different components that determine the success of a strategic plan, this book is a must read for any municipal administrator who is looking to improve the function of their municipality's strategic management framework."Often, the operations are an afterthought when planning the future of a municipality," says Plant. "By providing a 'line of sight' from the strategic goals to the municipal operations, staff can be engaged in identifying ways to improve service delivery, leading to cost savings and greater citizen satisfaction." With many practical examples, including case studies, and a strategic planning citizen survey to help collect valuable information, Plant highlights the importance of leaving "no stone unturned" in effectively implementing the operations behind a successful strategic plan.As local governments constantly grow and evolve, it is important to step back and determine how the pieces of the "puzzle" are working together to achieve the goals the organization has set out in its plan. Raising the Bar gives insightful direction for best practices to follow - to help ensure the community's ideas and initiatives have the best chance to succeed.

This is a comparative international study of the patterns of planning in local governments. While strategic planning has been a field of interest for public management and administrative science for over half a century there are very few cross-national studies of the specifics of planning in local governments. The book analyses the planning activities of local authorities in 7 diverse countries: France, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey and USA. Although theoretical models of strategic planning are used, the book’s findings point to a very diverse and interesting environment with cultural, political and legal factors playing a significant role in shaping how planning is done in each country.

This book provides an assessment of public financial management (PFM) reforms in developing countries using Turkey as a case study. Volume II elaborates on asset and liability management, intergovernmental fiscal relations, accounting, financial reporting, and auditing. Bringing together academics and practitioners, the book analyzes the PFM reforms in the light of theoretical explanations and practices to reveal the achievements, challenges, and future perspectives of PFM.

This book discusses the role of regional design and visioning in the formation of regional territorial governance to offer a better understanding of (1) how a recognition of spatial dynamics and the visualization of spatial futures informs, and is informed by, planning frameworks and (2) how such design processes inform co-operation and collaboration on planning in metropolitan regions. It gathers theoretical reflections on these topics, and illustrates them by means of practical experiences in several European countries. Innovatively associating ideas with knowledge, it appeals to anyone with an interest in planning experiments in a post-regulative era. It aims at an increased understanding of how practices, engaged with the imagination of possible futures, support the creation of institutional capacity for strategic spatial planning at regional scales.