ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to understand how local governments prioritize regime values, often in a scarce resource environment. Managers may also ignore more complex issues such as privacy and implied constitutional rights, even when there can be high economic costs. Rohr (1989) posited that regime values should be statements that reflect cultural norms and core beliefs and should be useful as administrative guidance. This chapter begins to expand on his work and enables administrators, even at the local level, to make decisions guided by his construct, while extending his interpretation of values to include international agreements and practices. This chapter (1) considers whether or not “privacy” passes Rohr’s muster as a “regime value,” then (2) analyzes alternative systems for thinking about the intersection of rights and local government privacy, and finally (3) it expands upon Rohr’s typology and offers an idea of “supra-regime values” as a more workable administrative standard. By extending Rohr’s structure and including privacy as a value, one incorporates a broader understanding of the values necessary for modern governance. “Supra-regime values” offer a broader alternative to the sometimes parochial values of individual nation-states.
