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The Frame Game
It’s a new year, and with it has come a whole new crop of state and local elected officials. It’s early, but the signs are not auspicious. Case in point:…
Leadership Dilemmas: The Seduction of Correctly Solving the Wrong Problem
There was a university study conducted a few years ago on mice, rats, and hamsters. The study was intended, of course, to see if we could learn something that we…
Strengthening Accountability and Public Confidence with Transparency Websites
According to Transparency International, an international anti-corruption organization headquartered in Berlin, the public sectors of most of the world’s countries are still plagued by high levels of perceived corruption. Based…
The New Old(er) US: Are you ready for tech savvy older adults?
Can we talk about aging? Yes, we have to. Let’s start by admitting that we are all aging. According to the 2010 census, more than thirteen percent of us in…
Restoring Trust in Government Matters
Despite heightened rhetoric about engaging citizens, improving customer satisfaction and restoring public trust in government, little significant success in doing so is evident today especially when we focus on the…
Emergency Management During Transitions: How to Stay the Course
Much of the literature on emergency management stresses the importance of developing and maintaining a strategic vision. The same is true of public administration in general, with perhaps the greatest…
Administrative Law and Federalism in the Age of Obamacare
Public administrators and agencies exert an enormous amount of authority in American society. They make daily judgments regarding the quality of the food we eat, the water we drink, and…
What We Don’t Know and Why It Matters
When I was growing up, there was a frequently heard saying: “what you don’t know can’t hurt you.” Unlike a lot of other folk adages, it’s wrong. When it characterizes…
Assets Building in a Small, Appalachian City
In last month’s column, we discussed how communities should focus on their assets rather than their needs when developing economic strategies. Needs-based development often causes communities to offer unwise tax…
Beyond the Voting Booth
In his acceptance speech, President Barack Obama included this applause line: “The role of citizens in our democracy does not end with your vote. America’s never been about what can…
Leaders Beware: There be Dragons!
In ancient times, when map makers drew spots on the map where no one had been and no one knew anything about, they simply wrote: “There be dragons here.” The…