Premium
Urban community organizations and local government: Exploring relationships and roles
Author(s) -
White Louise G.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
public administration and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1099-162X
pISSN - 0271-2075
DOI - 10.1002/pad.4230060304
Subject(s) - guard (computer science) , expediting , local government , service delivery framework , autonomy , public relations , government (linguistics) , service (business) , public administration , focus group , perspective (graphical) , business , political science , marketing , economics , management , law , artificial intelligence , programming language , linguistics , philosophy , computer science
There is an increasing interest in using local community organizations to assist in the development process. Observers who evaluate the contribution of such groups frequently classify them into two clusters: those which are closely tied to the government and focus on service delivery, and those which guard their autonomy and engage in development rather than service delivery. This dichotomy, however, downplays the developmental role of groups allied with local governments and obscures some important contributions they can offer. Three different models are proposed and two case studies of service‐oriented groups in Cairo are presented. The cases suggest that an important criterion in assessing voluntary groups is the extent to which their service delivery role enables them to develop an organization. From this perspective their role is potentially much broader than expediting government services.