No abstract

No abstract

The difficult task of evaluation of government programs has been discussed and analyzed in some detail in the literature of social science by two prominent groups-the &dquo;technocrats&dquo; and the &dquo;community control&dquo; advocates. Both groups maintain that there is a better way for local government to provide services, but both tend to ignore the contributions of the other.' 1 Among the technocrats are those who have sought to use the management techniques and resources of operations research, cost-benefit analysis, general systems theory, cybernetics and information theory, computer applications, systems programming, and Planning-Programming-Budgeting-Systems (PPBSs) to help solve public problems or at least minimize the conflict resulting from such problems.' The application of the scientific method to decision-making produces an ideal type rational model of the decisional process which the technocratic school can be said to adhere to.

No abstract

As Christmas 2000 Approached In Dublin There Appeared Little prospect that its citizens would avoid the annual rigmarole associated with securing a safe passage home after an evening out. Anaesthetized by now to forecasts of an integrated transport system the envy of Europe, this was a public that had become weary. As for getting a taxi home, there are few it seems who by now could not recount to you their own little horror story: two-hour vigils at a taxi rank in the rain had become firmly ensconced within the mythology of the Celtic Tiger. And yet, as with so many other anecdotes of this period, they would have to vie for our attention in a conversation space crowded with incredulous descriptions of Dublin's morning gridlock, its escalating house prices or political and financial embezzlement.