scholarly journals Does Public Campaign Funding Crowd Out Private Donation Activity? Evidence from Seattle's Democracy Voucher Program

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Griffith ◽  
Thomas Noonen
Keyword(s):  
Causal Effect ◽  
City Council ◽  
Private Giving ◽  
Public Campaign ◽  
Comparison Groups ◽  
Crowd Out ◽  
Private Donations ◽  
Small Donors ◽  
Donation Activity ◽  
The City

During each election cycle, the city of Seattle distributes four \$25 vouchers to every registered voter, which may be donated to and redeemed by campaigns for city office. Through a difference-in-differences research design, we study the causal effect of Seattle's program on various outcomes in city council elections in the first two cycles after implementation, with two comparison groups drawn from other cities in Washington and California. We find that the program led to an approximately 62-100% increase in total contributions and a 400% increase in number of unique donors. The effects on dollars and donors are entirely driven by small donors, defined as those who contribute less than $200 to a campaign. We find statistically insignificant evidence of decreases in private donations, although our point estimates suggest moderate-to-substantial crowd-out ratios. We further show that the program led to a 76-86% increase in candidates for city council. These results provide some of the first causal evidence on the effect of decentralized public campaign finance schemes, while also speaking to broader questions measuring the effects of money in politics, campaign regulation, and the effects of public funds on private giving.

Portuguese Sardines - from the ritual to the brand

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-120
Author(s):  
Cecília Avelino Barbosa
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Place Branding ◽  
Symbolic Capital ◽  
City Council ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
City Branding ◽  
The Past ◽  
Behavioral Expression ◽  
The City ◽  
City Identity

Place branding is a network of associations in the consumer’s mind, based on the visual, verbal, and behavioral expression of a place. Food can be an important tool to summarize it as it is part of the culture of a city and its symbolic capital. Food is imaginary, a ritual and a social construction. This paper aims to explore a ritual that has turned into one of the brands of Lisbon in the past few years. The fresh sardines barbecued out of doors, during Saint Anthony’s festival, has become a symbol that can be found on t-shirts, magnets and all kinds of souvenirs. Over the year, tourists can buy sardine shaped objects in very cheap stores to luxurious shops. There is even a whole boutique dedicated to the fish: “The Fantastic World of Portuguese Sardines” and an annual competition promoted by the city council to choose the five most emblematic designs of sardines. In order to analyze the Sardine phenomenon from a city branding point of view, the objective of this paper is to comprehend what associations are made by foreigners when they are outside of Lisbon. As a methodological procedure five design sardines, were used of last year to questioning to which city they relate them in interviews carried in Madrid, Lyon, Rome and London. Upon completion of the analysis, the results of the city branding strategy adopted by the city council to promote the sardines as the official symbol of Lisbon is seen as a Folkmarketing action. The effects are positive, but still quite local. On the other hand, significant participation of the Lisbon´s dwellers in the Sardine Contest was observed, which seems to be a good way to promote the city identity and pride in their best ambassador: the citizens.

Treading Angels: Edinburgh and its Festivals

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 290-317
Author(s):  
David McCrone
Keyword(s):  
City Council ◽  
The City ◽  
Public Bodies

How did Edinburgh become ‘festival city’? Despite appearances, it was not always so, and it acquired the accolade by happenstance; in the view of one observer, a ‘strange amalgam of cultural banditry, civic enterprise and idealism’. The official Festival's survival was down to the City Council, and it was funded almost entirely by public bodies. This was the central structure around which The Fringe developed, and The Traverse prospered, along with smaller festivals and events to become Festival City. The story sheds considerable light on how Edinburgh ‘works’, its strengths and weaknesses combined.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Chief Editor ◽  
City Council ◽  
The West ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
Warm Summer ◽  
The City

On a warm summer afternoon in 1561, Calvin’s chief editor donned a heavy stole, thick robes, and a gleaming tiara and proceeded to strut and fret his hour upon the stage in a comedy of his own devising. For little more than a century, Christians in the West had celebrated on August 6th Christ’s Transfiguration as the son of God in shining robes. But on this Sunday in Geneva, the city council, consistory, and an audience fresh from having attended edifying sermons at morning service gathered to applaud the transfiguration of the learned Conrad Badius into the title role of ...

scholarly journals The Interlocking Processes Constraining the Struggle for Sanctuary in the Trump Era: The Case of La Puente, CA

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Gilda L. Ochoa
Keyword(s):  
Status Quo ◽  
City Council ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
Community Members ◽  
White Supremacist ◽  
The Status ◽  
The City

By 10 January 2017, activists in the predominately Latina/o working class city of La Puente, California had lobbied the council to declare the city a sanctuary supporting immigrants, people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. The same community members urged the school district to declare itself a sanctuary. While community members rejoiced in pushing elected officials to pass these inclusive resolutions, there were multiple roadblocks reducing the potential for more substantive change. Drawing on city council and school board meetings, resolutions and my own involvement in this sanctuary struggle, I focus on a continuum of three overlapping and interlocking manifestations of white supremacist heteronormative patriarchy: neoliberal diversity discourses, institutionalized policies, and a re-emergence of high-profiled white supremacist activities. Together, these dynamics minimized, contained and absorbed community activism and possibilities of change. They reinforced the status quo by maintaining limits on who belongs and sustaining intersecting hierarchies of race, immigration status, gender, and sexuality. This extended case adds to the scant scholarship on the current sanctuary struggles, including among immigration scholars. It also illustrates how the state co-opts and marginalizes movement language, ideas, and people, providing a cautionary tale about the forces that restrict more transformative change.

scholarly journals Together, We Can Make This Place Our Home: Civic Engagement Among Asian Immigrants

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 99-99
Author(s):  
Cindy Bui ◽  
Kyungmin Kim ◽  
Qian Song ◽  
Yuri Jang
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Asian American ◽  
American Culture ◽  
City Council ◽  
Asian Immigrants ◽  
The City ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Acculturation Factors

Abstract Civic engagement is an important dimension of age-friendly communities but has been understudied among Asian immigrant groups. While research has attributed greater civic engagement among immigrants to acculturation factors, the influence of acculturation may be conditioned upon Asian immigrants’ social network and place attachment to their city. We used data from the Asian American Quality of Life survey to analyze civic engagement activity (e.g., City council meeting, voting in a City election) among a diverse sample of middle-aged and older Asian immigrants in Austin, Texas (N = 994). 34.5% of the sample had participated in at least one civic engagement activity in the past 12 months. We examined how such civic engagement is associated with acculturation factors, and further examined whether one’s friend network and perception of their city moderated the association. We found that number of years lived in the U.S., familiarity with mainstream American culture, and number of friends in one’s social network were positively related to civic engagement activity. Furthermore, we found that the association between years lived in the U.S. and civic engagement was more pronounced for immigrants with larger friend networks; the association between familiarity with American culture and civic engagement was more pronounced for immigrants with more positive perceptions of the city. These findings highlight that acculturation may not operate alone in civic engagement among Asian immigrants. Rather, it may also be important to create opportunities for Asian immigrants to feel connected to their community and build meaningful friend networks to encourage civic engagement.

scholarly journals Adoption of local public health plan for better health and quality of life in Belgrade

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
G Tamburkovski ◽  
G Belamarić ◽  
D Matijević ◽  
S Mladenović Janković
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Health Plan ◽  
Health Planning ◽  
City Council ◽  
Public Health Strategy ◽  
Public Health Planning ◽  
Health Strategy ◽  
Public Health Plan ◽  
The City

Abstract Issue Development of public health plan for the City of Belgrade, facilitate multisectoral participation and encourage local government to incorporate public health planning into integrated planning framework, including funding. Description of the Problem According to Public Health Low, adopted in Serbia in 2016 and Public health strategy (2018), Council for Health, as a professional body of the City government, was obliged to prepare draft of the Plan. Members of the City Council are representatives from different sectors: health care, public health, private sector, child care, education and civil society. Based on data and information from relevant institutions and organizations, situation analysis and health profile of the City have been prepared during 2018. Results Public health plan for the City of Belgrade has been drafted for a time period from 2020 to 2026, aligned and within time frame of the National public health strategy. Plan included: mission, vision, objectives, activities, responsible institutions, funding sources and indicators for monitoring. Focus was on health promotion and empowerment of citizens to adopt healthy lifestyle as well on investment in environmental sustainability, poverty and inequalities reduction and minimizing risks to human health and well-being. On December 2019, Belgrade City Assembly adopted this document, with full responsibility for implementation and budgeting specific programs and projects from 2020. Lessons Multisectoral working group, with clear defined scope of work, supported by regulations, encouraged and managed by experts in the field, highly motivated to be creator of changes is prerequisite for successful and productive public health planning process. Key messages Public health planning enabled communication and cooperation among experts and decision makers and represented a whole-of-local government approach to public health. Document is used as a resource and model for the other cities and municipalities.

scholarly journals Green(er) Cities and Their Citizens: Insights from the Participatory Budget of Lisbon

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8243
Author(s):  
Roberto Falanga ◽  
Jessica Verheij ◽  
Olivia Bina
Keyword(s):  
Public Funding ◽  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
City Council ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Political Awareness ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
International Discourse ◽  
Participatory Budget ◽  
The City

There is rising scholarly and political interest in participatory budgets and their potential to advance urban sustainability. This article aims to contribute to this field of study through the specific lens of the city of Lisbon’s experience as an internationally acknowledged leader in participatory budgeting. To this end, the article critically examines the lessons and potential contribution of the Lisbon Participatory Budget through a multimethod approach. Emerging trends and variations of citizen proposals, projects, votes, and public funding are analysed in tandem with emerging key topics that show links and trade-offs between locally embedded participation and the international discourse on urban sustainability. Our analysis reveals three interconnected findings: first, the achievements of the Lisbon Participatory Budget show the potential to counteract the dominant engineered approach to urban sustainability; second, trends and variations of the achievements depend on both citizens’ voice and the significant influence of the city council through policymaking; and, third, the shift towards a thematic Green Participatory Budget in 2020 was not driven by consolidated social and political awareness on the achievements, suggesting that more could be achieved through the 2021 urban sustainability oriented Participatory Budget. We conclude recommending that this kind of analysis should be systematically carried out and disseminated within city council departments, promoting much needed internal awareness of PBs’ potential as drivers of urban sustainability. We also identify further research needed into the sustainability potential of green PBs.

scholarly journals The Implications of and Responses to COVID-19: Localizing Human Rights in the City of York (UK)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-259
Author(s):  
Paul Gready
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
City Council ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Thick Description ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City ◽  
Dimensional Picture

Abstract This essay attempts to capture the human rights implications of COVID-19, and responses to it, in the city of York (UK). Three human rights contributions are identified: ensuring that responses enhance dignity, the right to life, non-discrimination, and protect the most vulnerable; using human rights when balancing priorities and making difficult decisions; and optimizing the link between disease and democracy. The overarching aim is to localize and contextualize human rights in a meaningful way in the city, and thereby to provide meaningful guidance to the City Council and statutory agencies when implementing the difficult measures required by the pandemic, and to support civil society advocacy and monitoring. This work, led by the York Human Rights City (YHRC) network, illustrates the value of a localized ‘thick description’ of human rights and the multi-dimensional picture of challenges, innovations and solutions facilitated by such an approach.

Kampungs and Conflict in Colonial Semarang

1988 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Cobban
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
City Council ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
North Coast ◽  
The North ◽  
Central Java ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City

By the beginning of the twentieth century, Semarang was a major port city and administrative centre on Java. Attainment of this position was due partly to the expansion of its hinterland during the nineteenth century. This expansion was closely related to developments in the means of transportation and the consequent ability of plantation owners to bring the products of their plantations to the port for shipment to foreign markets. By the end of the century virtually the whole economic life of central Java focused upon Semarang. The city also exercised administrative functions in the Dutch colonial administration and generally had been responsible for Dutch interests in the middle and eastern parts of the island. The importance of Semarang as an administrative centre increased after 1906. In that year the government incorporated the city as an urban municipality (stadsgemeente). In 1914 it had consular representation from the United States, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Germany, and Thailand. Subsequently, in 1926 it became the capital of the Province of Central Java under the terms of an administrative reform fostered by the colonial government at Batavia. Status as an urban municipality meant that local officials sitting on a city council would govern the domestic affairs of the city. The members of the city council at first were appointed from Batavia, subsequently some of them were elected by residents of the city. By the beginning of the twentieth century Semarang had enhanced its position as a major port on the north coast of the island of Java. It was one of the foremost cities of the Dutch East Indies, along with Batavia and Surabaya, a leading port and a centre of administration and trade. This article outlines the growth of the port of Semarang during the nineteenth century and discusses some of the conflict related to this growth over living conditions in parts of the city during the twentieth century, a conflict which smouldered for several decades among the government, members of the city council, and the non-European residents of the city, one which remained unresolved at the end of the colonial era.

scholarly journals Citizen Participation and Machine Learning for a Better Democracy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Procter ◽  
Miguel Arana-Catania ◽  
Felix-Anselm van Lier ◽  
Nataliya Tkachenko ◽  
Yulan He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
City Council ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
The City

The development of democratic systems is a crucial task as confirmed by its selection as one of the Millennium Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations. In this article, we report on the progress of a project that aims to address barriers, one of which is information overload, to achieving effective direct citizen participation in democratic decision-making processes. The main objectives are to explore if the application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning can improve citizens? experience of digital citizen participation platforms. Taking as a case study the ?Decide Madrid? Consul platform, which enables citizens to post proposals for policies they would like to see adopted by the city council, we used NLP and machine learning to provide new ways to (a) suggest to citizens proposals they might wish to support; (b) group citizens by interests so that they can more easily interact with each other; (c) summarise comments posted in response to proposals; (d) assist citizens in aggregating and developing proposals. Evaluation of the results confirms that NLP and machine learning have a role to play in addressing some of the barriers users of platforms such as Consul currently experience.

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