4 research outputs found

    Implementing Sustainability Initiatives: A Study Of U.S. Local Governments

    Get PDF
    Sustainability has been framed by the World Commission on Environment and Development as a fundamental concept in human society and by Fiorino (2010) as a critical conceptual focus for public administration over the next decade. A large number of U.S. local governments have implemented sustainability initiatives. Nevertheless, relatively few studies have comprehensively examined sustainability implementation by local governments. This study makes a concerted effort to examine sustainability implementation in U.S. local governments, which have taken the lead in many areas of sustainability. This study also develops a capacity building model to empirically evaluate how organizational strategies and capacities influence sustainability practices at the local level of government through a national survey of U.S. cities with populations over 50,000. The results show that cities are most successful in implementing sustainability initiatives if they develop proper technical, financial, and, particularly, managerial capacities and if they pursue primarily external, bottom-up, more participative, citizen or stakeholder driven strategies. These results suggest a public manager road map for sustainability implementation. From a theoretical perspective, the capacity building model adopted in this study provides a relatively powerful explanation of sustainability implementation, which demonstrates the value of a capacity building model in further studying sustainability implementation

    Health Care Reform\u27s Proposed End-of-Life Provisions

    Get PDF
    End-of-life planning promotes patient autonomy by allowing individual patients to inform and direct care givers and healthcare proxies on their desired level of end-of-life care, where the patient prefers to pass away (whether at home or in a hospital setting), and the methods and levels of pain management that the patient deems desirable. Given that, it is counter-intuitive that a significant majority of American\u27s fail to execute, or fail to properly execute, advance directives. Theauthor’seffortsfocusonwhatcanbedonetoimprove,generally,end-of-lifecare. Tothatend,theauthorsconclude that improvements in end-of-life care must be achieved at three levels: the individual level, the healthcare provider level, andatthegovernmentlevel. Ontheindividuallevel,patientsmustassumegreateraccountabilityfortheirownend-of-life care. Thatentailsmakingone\u27swishesforend-of-lifecareknowntofamilymembersandhealthcareproviders. Onthe healthcare provider level, improved patient communication and improved delivery of palliative-oriented care are first order initiatives. Finally, the government can play a significant role in improving end-of-life care by collecting better healthcare utilization and cost data on end-of-life experiences, expanding benefits for palliative care services, and promoting the use of advance directives through legislative efforts that include patient education measures

    Capacity To Sustain Sustainability: A Study Of U.S. Cities

    No full text
    Why do some governments implement more sustainability practices than others Based on a national survey of U.S. cities, this article finds moderate levels of sustainability efforts and capacity in U.S. cities; about one-third of the sustainability practices identified in this article have been implemented. The authors conclude that, first, capacity building is a useful conceptual focus for understanding sustainability implementation in U.S. cities. Capacity building involves developing technical and financial support and increasing managerial execution. Second, sustainability is strongly associated with managerial capacity, which includes establishing sustainability goals, incorporating goals in operations, and developing a supportive infrastructure. Third, getting stakeholders involved furthers the capacity for sustaining sustainability efforts. Citizen involvement is strongly associated with securing financial support for sustainability. © 2012 by The American Society for Public Administration
    corecore