Political Culture, Local Government and Progressive Personnel Practices

Abstract

The American federal system allows for a great deal of variability in policy implementation by municipal and county governments Devolution of that responsibility from the federal government to state and local governments will likely reinforce the variability. This article assesses the relative utility of Elazar's and Lieske's political culture theories with respect to the adoption of progressive collective bargaining practices. Findings from a survey of 703 local governments support the conclusions that certain political cultures are more likely to adopt progressive collective bargaining provisions, and Lieske's theory is at least as effective as Elazar's in predicting such adoption.

Decentralization of Human Resource Management

“…It is also likely that region is linked to decentralization because cultural traditions often heavily influence political decisions (Elazar, 1966;Lieske, 1993). Studies have demonstrated the importance of regional and cultural differences on state policies and human resource management practices (for example, McCurdy, 1998;Sharkansky, 1969). This study examines whether region is associated with decentralization.4 4 Hypothesis 4: The extent of HRM decentralization is associated with region.…”

The Relationship between Citizen Involvement in the Budget Process and City Structure and Culture

“…According to this model, the accepted roles of citizens in governance vary across the three cultures. However, the model continues to be used to explain cross-state variations in areas such as local personnel practices (McCurdy, 1998), voter registration laws and turnout (King, 1994), political party activism (Paddock, 1997), and human service delivery systems (Bielefeld & Corbin, 1996). The individualistic culture is largely found across the middle portion of the country and is based on the marketplace view of government in which politics is a business and is based on favors.…”