Discuss the below:
The Fragmented Metropolis (Judd & Swanstrom, )
The Fragmented Metropolis was an insightful topic presented by Judd and Swanstrom (7) because they clearly described how cities grow and become collages of various small communities. A well-known example is New York City due because of its overall diversity. Some neighborhoods are defined by the ethnic heritage, like Canal Street has Chinatown and Little Italy. Other neighborhoods like Park
Avenue accommodate the more affluent while others house the less privileged. It is noteworthy to point out that even with that level of diversity, the city came together in great force after the September 11 attacks. However, Judd and Swanstrom (9) illustrate the paradox of urban growth promoting greater isolation. After having lived in cities, suburbs, and isolated islands (where the closest McDonald's was 1500 miles away) the paradox of urban growth has greater significance with me. In essence, the lesser the concentration of people leads to a greater sense of community in many instances.
Key Idea #2: The Political Process (Peters, pages 11-12)
Peters (11) argues that the government is growing because the public demands more services. This is a fundamental supply and demand issue, but government growth is generally affected by several factors. One of these growth factors are external influences. External influences like political interest groups may influence the government leadership to shift funds to keep or increase some of services. Eventually, this may lead to situations where the fiscal limitations are overlooked and overspending leads to growth. It is unfortunate, that in most instances, the political interest groups may not have the public interest at hand according to Peters (11). A good example is found in a community where the property tax was increased to fix the potholes on the streets, but the money ended up in making improvements to a local community park. The potholes were not fixed because a special interest group of community residents put pressure on the local government to make improvements to the park. Eventually, the municipality buckled and shifted their spending away from fixing the streets and moved toward making park improvements.
Key Idea #3: Trust in Government (Peters, pages 45-47 and 63-65)
According to Peters (64) lack of confidence in the government is a common sentiment among citizens of industrialized democracies. Scandals in recent years like the IRS lavish spending and NSA covert surveillance programs have tarnished the government's image and lowered the public's trust in government. According to Peters (45) the customer service provided by the government is critical relationship between the public and the government servant is dependent on the public servant/entity level of performance. It can be argued that trust in the government depends on how well the public is served, but trust also stems from how the government is perceived. Many government agencies are striving toward better customer service with the hope to reestablish and improve the public's trust in government. Lastly, Peters argues (46) that public service is being stereotyped as an inefficient and indifferent to the public's needs. In reality, the public sector practice is comparable to the private sector.
PA599 Week 1 Key Ideas
(You should to response for this below )
The Challenge of the Global Era, Judd and Swanstrom,
In discussing the fragmented metropolis, one of the leading causes identified is the surge of immigration. One of the primary ways that this can be observed is in economic inequalities. Unfortunately, these inequalities still remain today; minimum wage paid employees working at high-end, expensive retail stores. These inequalities drive their way into other aspects of society as well, specifically politics and the diversity of city-suburban communities. The primary challenge of this fragmentation is effective and adequate governance.
Understandably, this challenge is found at all levels of government and is difficult to minimize. This can clearly be observed in the current political arena of candidate running for President. Donald Trump is the perfect example of this challenge; however it does not seem that trying to reduce the inequalities in society is a current for him. In all honesty though, this challenge and these inequalities will not end within society until the gaps between the poor and the wealthy or between cultures are lessened.
The Immigrant Tide, Judd and Swanstrom, pages 29-34
The historical aspect of this section was extremely interesting. The extreme surge of immigrants prior to the early to mid 1920s definitely helped to build and advance the United States as a society in both government and community. In reading about the harsh realities that faced many immigrants upon arrival in the United States, I was instantly reminded of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The tale discussed the difficulties faced by immigrants as they arrived and were instantly thrown into an extremely neglected area and forced to work in poor conditions at large factories similar to those mentioned in this section.
Reading about the rough living conditions, such as the dumbbell buildings, is difficult to imagine considering the living conditions and the regulations surrounding them of today. The challenges that these millions of immigrants faced really gives a sense of respect for their resourcefulness and resiliency to overcome. Despite the challenges these immigrants faced, they were still an important of shaping the political systems as it now known.
Public Spending, Peters, location 365-412
As we approach the end of another fiscal year, many public servants are concerned with their upcoming budgets and finalizing the spending the current funds. Understanding the need to address certain deficits, budgets are being significantly reduced in both labor and materials. These facts made this reading every interesting considering the relatively limited public expenditures in the last 50 plus years. The expenditures of the U.S. as compared to that of other industrialized countries is significantly behind and actually falls more in line with those non-industrialized countries.
Minimal expenditures may have allowed country to develop in a certain manner; however as the reading indicates, the government is a business and this could not be more clear as it related to expenditures. Contracting services may also be one of the reasons that the government ion the U.S. has been able to keep expenditures relatively low. On the other hand, expenditures may also be low because increased expenditures would require additional funds to come from somewhere and the most like area is increased taxes which tend to be a hot button issue for most citizens.
Political Culture and Administration, Peters,
The primary component of this section is public surveys regarding their evaluations of the quality of public services and public servants. Generally, the results indicated those public and private sectors were regarded similarly based on their interactions (1215). These results make it somewhat surprising then that the public tends to much higher expectations of the behavior of public servants. Aside from these results, it is not surprising that public servants are held to a higher standard because of where the funding comes from who they ultimately answer to.This section may have been more meaningful to me as I am currently a public servant. Ethics and customer service trainings are mandatory on an annual basis in addition to various other trainings. While it may be slightly different from one organization to the next, ours constantly reminds the employees that we are there to serve and that without the need of our service members, there would be no reason for our organization to exist. It would seem that this is the case though with many public organizations. With the proper focus on this issue, the satisfaction ratings of evaluations such as those discussed could be positively affected.