ABSTRACT
Improving local-government performance is increasingly important to the economic and social health of our nation. As more than 39,000 units of local government employ an increasing percentage of the civilian work force, consume an increasing quantity of resources, and provide an increasing quantity of goods and services, their contribution to economic growth and prosperity will increase. The importance of government performance goes beyond questions of costs and responsibilities to the fundamental issue of citizen confidence in government. The essential premise underlying President Richard M. Nixon’s policy of New Federalism was correct: local governments are in the best position to meet locally determined needs in accordance with locally determined policies and priorities. The essential need is to provide local-government officials, civic and community leaders, and private citizens with a conceptual framework that will allow them to diagnose their own local conditions and reach their own decisions about how best to improve the performance of their local government.
