An examination of empowering communities through decentralization and enlisting participation for capacity building for sub-national governance in developing countries.
Abstract This paper explores critically and comprehensively strategies that enhance empowerment of communites within a framework of sub-national governance through some techniques of decentralization and quality participation. Developing countries are the main units of analysis. However, the role of the International Development Community is examined and the discourse is concerned with creating a special legal, economic, social, political, geographic and fiscal space for sub-national groups that act autonomously, though in association with the state, private sector and other factors in society.
From the Paper "Since the 1970s and 1980s, the character and form of public service delivery has extended far beyond provision through central government towards the empowerment of local governments, hence, sub-national groupings involving much decentralization for empowering particularly communities. The idea has been the growing focus on not only, political and economic development, but also, and more importantly, social and human development where it has been recognized that central government alone, within the vortex of globalization cannot promote development in all respects. The United Nations Development programme (1998) has noted that decades of development assistance have countenanced the notion that economic development alone will not bring about equitable and lasting development because there was much focus on the economy, which meant an exclusion of political, social, environmental and cultural factors. As the report noted, ?"in the face of continued and devastating poverty and rapid environmental deterioration, more and more policy-makers are acknowledging that development progress must be people-centered, equitably distributed and environmentally and socially sustainable" (UNDP, ibid, 1998, p. 1). Nevertheless, the implementation, activity and even the concept of sub-national governance have been problematic and have developed a distinct set of formidable concerns. This is so, as some of the very problems found with central governments that propelled the idea and practise of decentralization and empowerment for sub-national groups, in particular communities, have again and have continually resurfaced and in some ways just as and even more troubling. Problems relate in part to information asymmetry, institutional deficiencies, and problems of targeting technical, managerial, professional and otherwise resources in addition to problems of accountability and capacity generally, as some would argue (Turner and Hulme 1997 : World Bank Report, June 2001 )."
Abstract The paper speaks about a community-based strategy, that alows police to trust citizens and citizens to trust, in contrast to traditonal authoritarian modes of policing. The paper explores several models of community-based policing in the world, with a focus on Jamaica.
From the Paper "In recent times, community-based policing, especially in the Western World, particularly in the United States and the UK, has been the preferred way of crime fighting. It has been accepted, however, that because of the differences in cultures, politics and economic infrastructure of societies, there may be some problems in introducing some of these measures that are designed to be more "people-oriented". Nevertheless, while resources may be one problem along with political and economic differences, there is also that problem of social acceptance of measures to be imported into a culture where the citizenry are wary of the intentions of the police force, as in Jamaica."
Tags: Constabulary, Force, Crime, Management, Unit, authoritarian, Anglophone
Examines the effects of internal and external stimuli on the perceptions of events and resulting communitations. These interpretations guide organizational conflict.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 6 sources, 1999, $ 47.95
From the Paper "SELECTIVE PERCEPTION IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT
Fisher (1998) stated that two important factors"internal and external stimuli""influence the interpretations that guide communications" (pp. 237-238). With respect to interpersonal communication, Fisher (1998) noted that (1) human attention is selective and that individuals seek ?congruence between ? internal state, behavior, and interpretations? through "selectively perceiving" (p. 239). Further, Fisher (1998) stated that a person "may maintain internal-external congruence by distorting or avoiding data" (p. 239). In other words and for a variety of reasons, people tend to hear what they want to hear.
Fisher (1998) defined perception "as a process of observing, selecting, and organizing stimuli" (p. 240). Fisher (1998) ..."
Abstract Towards the end of the 1850s, city beautification became an issue that more and more leaders followed and explored. The theory behind this movement was that the more aesthetically pleasing you make a city, the more people will want to live in that city, and the happier they will be. One of the greatest champions of the City Beautiful movement was Frederick Law Olmsted. The paper explores the life and achievements of Olmsted who was the leading landscape architect of the post-Civil War generation, and has long been acknowledged as the founder of American landscape architecture.
From the Paper "Olmsted had high expectations for his design's psychology and visual effects on people. He believed that the perfect antidote to the stress and artificialness of urban life was a nice stroll through a pastoral park. He foresaw places with graceful undulating greensward and scattered growths of trees. He believed and promoted the idea that such an environment would promote a sense of tranquillity. Olmsted's vision was that the sense of calmness that would come from the park by his separation of the different landscape themes and conflicting uses."
