Book Description

Local government officials often times fulfill a dual role in policy making. This dual role amounts to officials being both a policy analyst and a policy-maker. Much of the policy-making done by local government officials is strategic in nature - planning for the future growth, development, and needs of the citizenry. In order to strategically plan for the future and make decisions within this framework, local government officials must have data at their disposal to help inform their decision making. In essence, local government officials then must also act as policy analysts - collecting data, analyzing it, and finally translating that data into meaningful policy decisions. This research examines one means of providing local government officials with data to help inform their decision-making - citizen surveys. Local governments often conduct surveys to collect information on a host of issues confronting their community. This research focuses on broad-based community surveys, the data that is collected, and the translation of that data into policy outcomes. Through the presentation of case illustrations, a survey typology is presented that can be used to classify individual surveys as being either informational, strategic, decisionistic, or symbolic based on identifiable factors in each survey and how the results were ultimately utilized by the local government.