ABSTRACT
The existence of a local government is not solely dependent on satisfying its customers, nor is the revenue collected by a local government based on consumer choices related to the worth of a product or a service. There is little agreement about which measures of performance, if any, tell political leaders, managers, and citizens whether their local government is succeeding or failing. Local government also has four groups of participants: citizens, political representatives, municipal managers, and labor. In local government a number of important jobs in the management process are performed by nonprofessionals. Non-professional involvement in the management of local government continues at a high level because most citizens do not appreciate the complexity of local government and the difficulty of managing it. It is true that many of the management techniques used in a private business are transferable to a public business.
