A Sociological Study on Restructuring the Self-governmental System of Local Communities under Decentralization

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This study explores ways to restructure the self-governmental system of local communities under decentralization. We investigated this issue by distributing questionnaires and interviewing three groups of subjects : 11,439 community leaders from 11 local governments spread across the country, 5,104 government employees from 37 local governments nationwide, and four city council members from T city in Osaka (between Feb.2004 and May 2005). Here we highlight some of the main findings.1.Community leaders engage in considerable self-sufficient activities, but the network of leaders shaping the self-identity in communities is quite abundant. This serves to strengthen neighborhood mutual support, is a key factor in building community sentiment and participation in community activities, and strengthens community functional networks.2.Community leaders who take an active role in promoting self-reliant disaster preparedness have a strong orientation toward mutual assistance and are committed to … More an autonomous approach to disaster preparedness activities. And in the way they perceive local town disaster prevention issues, they also tend to support mutual-help issues through mutual-help participation, which suggests solidly-grounded perception as community leaders.3.Promotion of local educational activities that fully integrate home, school, the community, and government demands human resources (good leaders who are capable of leading and coordinating), public relations activities, and government cooperation.4.Examining local government promotion polices toward lower-ranking positions, we observed a shift toward a uniform seniority model by shrinking the distribution of promotions, and toward higher-ranking positions a transition toward a tournament model by reducing the probability of advancement. Both of these trends have the effect of increasing the attachment of employees to organizations, and are rational.5.Local government employees become increasingly loyal to their departments as they are promoted ("Administrative Man"),then as they move into the upper echelons, they begin to strive more to serve the public interest and develop more self-discipline and a greater sense of duty ("Public Man") Less