Dozens of countries have decentralized at least part of their natural resource policies over the last two decades. Despite the length of time that these policy experiments have been in force, there is little agreement about their effectiveness. We argue that part of this ambivalence stems from three limitations of extant studies, suggesting that…

In the past and present, the communities of Mount Desert Island in Maine have faced the issue of school consolidation. In 1948, the four towns of Mount Desert Island each had their own high school and several elementary schools. Despite an extensive survey and community discussion, the vote to consolidate into one high school was defeated in 1949…

A public policy seminar discussed how to match small towns and small computers. James K. Coyne, Special Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Private Sector Initiatives, offered opening remarks and described a database system developed by his office to link organizations and communities with small computers to…

In five chapters, this document's first part reports on research on the interrelationship of school and municipal finance in New Hampshire. The document's second part briefly summarizes the research report and discusses policy changes suggested by the results. Chapter 1 of the research report describes New Hampshire schools and the state aid…

Designed to accompany an audiovisual filmstrip series devoted to presenting a visual history of life in America, this guide contains an elementary social studies (grades 2-6) unit on the American city over the last century. Using authentic visuals including paintings, posters, advertising, documentary photography, and cartoons, the guide offers…

This survey was conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors to determine the extent to which cities are using affirmative action programs, and to assess the programs' contributions to the improvement of personnel practices in city governments. During the summer of 1986, survey responses were received from 121 cities in 41 states plus the District…

As part of a larger study aimed at assessing how local people view recent changes and development programs in four Eastern Kentucky counties (Harlan, Perry, Whitley, and Wolfe), a survey on perceived quality of life was conducted. Data were derived from personal interviews with selected local leaders (varying from 21 to 33 interviews per county)…

Cable television (CATV) in New Jersey has been almost nonexistent: Because of the state's proximity to the major cities of New York and Philadelphia, there has been a scarcity of New Jersey-oriented news and public affairs programing. Cable television access, it is suggested, could fill this information gap in New Jersey if the state government…

Describes a survey of Greek public libraries and the resulting classification of these institutions as county, municipal, or children's libraries. The problems of inadequate library resources, a nonreading public, ill-trained and unsupported librarians, and lack of government legislation concerning libraries are discussed. (CLB)

This bulletin is about an invasion that was welcomed. It tells how boys and girls of Petersburg, West Virginia, invaded their town to learn and to serve. Hotels, school lunchroom, alleys, creeks and swamps, unused park area, and other resources were utilized. The young invaders were welcomed by the adult citizens of the town because the principal…

Presents a look at the local culture of Tampa, Florida at the turn of the century and how it responded to a massive influx of troops waiting for action during the Spanish-American War. At that time, Tampa was a multiethnic city that included many Cuban-, Spanish-, and African-Americans. (MJP)

When Peter Meyer moved to Hudson, New York and placed his child in the local school system, he was shocked at the abysmal quality of education there. He was even more surprised to learn that there was very little movement for reform. He joined the school board with the hopes of enacting new policies, but found instead that it was an ineffecient…

The Swedish school system is a highly comprehensive one, with "grundskola" (compulsory school) for 7- to 16-year-olds and the non-compulsory "gymnasieskola" (three-year upper secondary school) as the main types of school. Since the decentralization reforms of the 1990s, municipalities (290 in total) have been given considerable…

This article examines the environmental impact on the programmatic implementation of community-oriented policing (COP) in large municipal police agencies during the 1990s. Three waves of nationwide surveys (1993, 1996, and 2000) based on a random sample of 281 municipalities and the corresponding police agencies were used for our analysis. Based…

It is argued that both economic concerns and political factors can be synthesized within a new framework to improve city policymaking. This approach is based on a systematic empirical study of policymaking in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and Baltimore (Maryland) in the 1970s and early 1980s. Numerous government documents and extensive interviews with…