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The Idea Of Good Government: The Evolution Of Administrative Thought And Practice In The American Republic, James Robert Wieber

Dissertations

This study analyzes the evolution of the proper role of public administration in American government. American public administration traces its roots to the founding of American constitutional government in 1789, but divergent opinions continue regarding the discipline's proper role in a democracy. This question has never been settled in the American experiment. Considering the size, scope, and complexity of today's administrative state, it may well never be. Recent efforts have sought to define public administrations's role as proactive on behalf of clients for reasons of social equity and human dignity. Further attempts have been made to define administration as a …

An Analysis Of The Use Of Special Masters For Assuring Compliance With Judicial Decrees In Corrections Litigation, Richard J. Liles

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the recent practice of judges appointing remedial special masters to oversee the implementation of consent decrees and court orders. These orders are a response to the spate of inmate suits demanding compliance with the constitutional guarantees provided in the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. As more courts have become involved in adjudging the constitutionality of conditions in correctional institutions, there has been a trend toward the judge becoming a quasi-manager in assuring compliance with the court's orders. To conduct this oversight, they have turned more and more to the practice of hiring …

School District Current Operating Expenditures: A Comparative Analysis Of Michigan School Districts Having A Student Population Of 10,000 To 50,000 For 1984-85, James Ross Constandt

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare line item current operating expenses among school districts in Michigan having a student population of 10,000 but less than 50,000 and to present a budget model which establishes minimum and maximum line item current operating expenses for such school districts. Line item expenditures were compared and analyzed among those school districts within the same student population grouping.

Local school districts in Michigan are categorized by the State Board of Education into 14 groupings based on pupil membership. School districts in Groups B and C were studied. Group B included four school districts …

An Historical Analysis Of Public Policy For The Care And Treatment Of People Who Are Mentally Retarded In Michigan, Kenneth O. Slater

Dissertations

This dissertation traces the historical development of Michigan's public policy associated with the residential care and treatment of mentally retarded people. Michigan laws and programs from 1830 through 1983 were studied after being compared to a national history. The central question was: What factors, over time, influenced public policy related to residential care and treatment of the mentally retarded?

Initially, care was the responsibility of families and friends of the mentally retarded. This responsibility shifted from townships to counties, then to the state during the nineteenth century. Until the late 1800s many mentally retarded people were housed on county poor …

Perceived Barriers And Proposed Solutions For Employment Of The Handicapped: Attitudes Of Employers And Employment Agencies, Leonard Robert Mcconnell Ii

Dissertations

The intent of this research was to analyze the employment barriers and to identify possible policy strategies for the unique employment problems faced by persons with handicaps. The study surveyed barriers to employment and proposed employment solutions for the handicapped as perceived by private- and public-sector employers and employment agencies. The handicapped and six disability groups were compared with women, blacks, and Hispanics on the same barriers and solutions. It was hypothesized that: (1) the handicapped as a protected group faced more and different employment barriers than did women, blacks, or Hispanics, and therefore (2) the handicapped needed more and …

The Implementation Of Deterrence: A Multi-Approach Assessment Of The Impact Of Recent Changes In Anti-Drunk Driving Legislation On Reducing Alcohol-Involved Fatalities, Josef R. Soper

Dissertations

The objective of this study is to determine if anti-drunk driving legislation, enacted between January 1979 and December 1983, has significantly reduced the number of alcohol-involved traffic fatalities.

At the macro-level, 60 consecutive months of alcohol-involved fatality data were requested from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Sixteen states supplied the requested data. The Box-Jenkins technique for interrupted time-series analysis was used to determine if a change in the state's drunk driving law impacted the frequency of alcohol-involved fatalities in that state. Results are discussed in relation to the statewide impact of anti-drunk driver legislation.

At the micro-level, …

Predicting Agency Survival As A Function Of Constituency Support In The Michigan Mental Health System, R. Dee L. Woell

Dissertations

Two public facilities for the mentally ill, Michigan Institute for Mental Health and Lafayette Clinic were examined, using a framework provided by Douglas R. Boulter (1983). The basic research question was, why did Lafayette Clinic survive while Michigan Institute did not?

The following research propositions were explored: (1) Organizations that receive strong constituency and media support are more likely to survive than those which do not; (2) Program success or failure is dependent on the decision-maker's perception of the sum of public support; (3) The media serves both as a carrier of opinion and as an influential actor in its …

Beyond Contingency Theory: Environment, Structure, And Administrator's Coping Ability In The Public Sector, Shyu-Tu Lee

Dissertations

In the last two decades, organizational-environment contingency theory has attracted much attention. A great deal of research has been done on investigating the impact of environment on organizations, suggesting the appropriate design of organizational structure. In recent years, organizational theorists have moved to investigate proactive approaches to organizational environments.

Most empirical studies, however, have been conducted in the private sector. In order to transfer the knowledge to the public sector, it is necessary to investigate whether public organizations are also subjected to environmental influence and how public administrators interact with the environment.

This study investigated the following three questions: (1) …

Determinant Factors In The Utilization Process Of Social Services In Saudi Arabia, Fahd Abdullah Ali Dileym

Dissertations

The Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare and the Deputy Ministry of Social Security provide a spectrum of social service programs and activities. However, utilization of the designated services is incapacitated by the existing gap between the potential clients and the social service providers. Certain barriers have contributed significantly to the clients' underutilization behavior of the assigned services.

Accordingly, this study had two purposes: (a) to determine whether social services provided by the Deputy Ministries of Social Welfare and Social Security are perceived by administrators, social workers, and college students to be underutilized; and (b) to compare the perceptions of the …

A Descriptive Study Of The Leadership Styles Of Michigan Juvenile Court Administrators Utilizing The Application Of The Managerial Grid Theory, Zigmund S. Kryszak Jr.

Dissertations

This descriptive study investigated the 83 juvenile court administrators in the state of Michigan. Specifically, the study attempted to (a) collect biographical and professional data regarding the administrators, (b) establish a preferred leadership style utilizing the Managerial Grid Theory postulated by Blake and Mouton, and (c) test the relationship between key variables and the leadership styles demonstrated by the administrators as a group.

The instruments utilized to collect the data were the Style of Management Inventory copyrighted by Teleometrics International of Woodland, Texas, and a self-designed Personal Data Questionnaire. These instruments were mailed to all 83 juvenile court administrators. The …

Leadership In Environmental Quality Organizations, Stephen A. Cannell

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Climatic Change Considered As The Major Factor In The Abandonment Of The Grand Canyon Region, Paulette Fern Rayel

Masters Theses

Introduction

Grand Canyon National Park comprises 1009 square miles of contrasting life zones and landscapes, with elevations ranging from 2500 feet at the Colorado River to more than 9000 feet of the North Rim. This area includes 117 miles of the Canyon, part of the Kaibab Plateua known as the North Rim and part of the Coconino Plateau or South Rim. Both formations are included in the Colorado Plateau (See Figures 1 and 2).

Archaeological evidence indicates that prehistoric agriculturalists - the Cohonina peoples and later the Anasazi - resided in the area from circa A. D. 700 until A. …

Affirmative Action In A Governmental Agency: Michigan's Vocational Rehabilitation Service (Vrs), Linda Collins Johnson

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Pollution Abatement At The Regional Level: A Case Study Of The Grand River Watershed Council, Bradley F. Smith

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Attitudes Of Michigan Civil Servants Toward Regulations On Their Political Activity, Lauri E. Kallio

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Budget Effects On Defense Planning, Charles Ventura

Masters Theses

Preface

The Department of Defense (DOD) program budget was developed to link defense planning to defense spending. The budget is designed to reflect total program costs. Military managers require such costs in order to make optimum allocation of resources. The program budget has been a useful tool in bringing uniformity to military plans but its effectiveness, the author contends, has been limited because it contains inaccurate cost data.

The author intends to prove that incorrect financial information is included in the budget because some resource expenditures cannot be accurately traced. The same resource is "common" to several different weapon systems. …

The Role Of The Myrtle Heege Community Center In The Recreation Program Of Kalamazoo, Fletcher S. Cooper

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Summer Recreation Programs In Small Michigan Communities, Walter A. Gillett

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Examination Of The Underlying Trends In Village And Rural Recreation With Application In The Three Oaks School District, Alfred Pfliger

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Proposed Program For The Veterans’ Institute At Dowagiac, Michigan, Harold E. Telfer

Masters Theses

Chapter I

Introduction

The close of World War II and the return to civilian life of its large number of young men and women veterans has been a period of rapid adjustments. A large number of these adjustments have been facilitated, or at least affected, by the legislative provisions of the national government. These provisions, in turn, have been affected by the applications made of them by local communities and their agencies. One example of the local application of the aims of the veterans' benefit laws is the Veterans' Institute jointly sponsored in Dowagiac, Michigan, by the Cass Country Veterans' …