Stephen L. Percy

Citizen Participation in the Coproduction of Urban Services

Citizen coproduction is the productive involvement urban residents can supply to the provision of city services. This article introduces the symposium on citizen coproduction of urban services by tracing the concepts and arguments in the coproduction literature. Definitions of coproduction are reviewed, along with propositions that relate citizen coproduction to outcomes such as effectiveness, efficiency, and responsiveness. Also considered are impediments to the implementation of coproduction programs related to urban service delivery. This article also introduces the other articles in this symposium.

In Defense of Citizen Evaluations as Performance Measures

Urban scholars have engaged in a debate about whether citizen perceptions of service delivery are accurate and useful in assessing the performance of public agencies. This article examines this debate, presents a model of influences on citizen evaluations of service delivery, and analyzes the model using data on police response time gathered in Fort Worth, Texas.

Disability, civil rights, and public policy : the politics of implementation

Following on the heels of other civil rights movements, disability rights laws emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Often these laws were more symbolic than precise in terms of objectives and strategies to guide the implementation of antidiscrimination policies. Policy refinement, the process of translating legislative mandates into strategies and procedures to govern administrative action, is both dynamic and controversial. The premise of the book is that implementation policies in these areas evolved through protracted political struggles among a variety of persons and groups affected by disability rights laws. Efforts to influence policies extended far beyond the process of legislative enactment and resulted in struggles that were played out in the courts and in the executive branch. Included within this examination of federal disability rights laws are the role of symbolic politics, the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary models used for the study of policy implementation, and the politics of administrative policymaking.

Further Tests of Individual-Level Propositions from the Tiebout Model

Urban researchers have begun to reexamine Charles Tiebouts ideas about citizen-consumer locational choice in metropolitan areas. David Lowery and William Lyons, among others, have empirically investigated assumptions which underpin Tiebouts thesis using individual-level rather than aggregate data. The purpose of this research note is to contribute to this evolving exploration of Tiebout propositions by presenting relevant individual-level data and critically assessing recent work in the field.

A New Kind of Public Policy Encounters Disappointing Results: Implementing Learnfare in Wisconsin

procedures. One component of several recent welfare reforms has been the coupling of welfare benefits with behavioral responsibilities such as seeking employment or enrolling in job-training programs. One of the most controversial reforms in this genre of policy innovation is Learnfare, a Wisconsin program in which welfare benefits are reduced when children in families receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) have poor school attendance. Several states are carefully watching this Wisconsin policy with an eye toward adopting some version of Learnfare. We describe the essential elements of Learnfare and explore key factors that create difficulties and challenges for achieving program success.

ADA, Disability Rights, and Evolving Regulatory Federalism

This article explores the evolution of regulatory federalism by examining the shifting basis of disability rights mandates from conditions-of-aid to federal preemption. It also examines the disability rights mandates placed on state and local governments by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and compares them with those provided in earlierfederal laws. The central thesis is that by adopting apreemptive approach, the U.S. Congress claimedfor itselfthe dominant role in creating and enforcing nondiscrimination mandates to protect the rights ofpeople with disabilities. While several organizing principles and implementation directives stipulated in ADA werefirst devised in earlierfederal laws and administrative regulations, their application through federal preemption strengthened the force and reach of disability rights protections. In the process, preemption substantially reduced the authority of state and local governments to create and implement their own disability rights measures.

Challenges and Dilemmas in Implementing Disability Rights Policies

The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 created a powerful civil rights mandate which built and expanded upon the mandates created in earlier disability rights policies. While it is too soon to evaluate the impact of the ADA—compliance deadlines only recently having passed—it is not too early to consider strategies for effective implementation and to identify potential areas of difficulty in program execution. This paper reviews evidence on the implementation of earlier disability rights policies and speculates on potential obstacles and challenges that administrators will face in effectively implementing the ADA.