Abstract This research will mainly study the Ping-Ling Freeway Plebiscite Act and the Ping-Ling County River and Fish Protection Act. The thesis adopts the logic of collective action and the analytic path of the resource mobilization theory and approval theory, which are derived from the collective action and social action theories. The research will further analyze the cause, process, effect and obstacles, of the Ping-Ling Plebiscite Action and River and Fish Protection Act. By observing the two actions, conclusions can then be drawn on the relationship between the regional collective action and the regional democracy. In the research, it is noted that a political elite, who is also an initiator, organizer as well as spokesperson, plays a significant role in the behavior of collective action. The Ping-Ling Plebiscite and the River and Fish Protection Act, with the leadership and power of the political elite added to hold, construct a systematic mechanism such as the Fish Protection Patrol Party. The politic elite will provide the residents theory discourse for use in participating collective action. Throughout the process of the regional residents participating in collective action, there will be great benefits to the democratic development in the region. From the process of actively participating in the regional affairs, the residents will develop new perspectives, and thus have positive on the development of regional civism. It is also discovered in the study that the factional structure of Ping-Ling County is gradually changing. The phenomenon of faction predominating the residents¡¦ power of political life is gradually diminishing. The residents now cast their votes based on the candidates¡¦ ability and contribution to the region and much less based on faction. It is shown that regional democracy can be radicated and practiced through collective action, and this can be a possible approach for every region¡¦s municipals push.

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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Montana, 2007. / Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed June 19, 2007. Includes bibliographical references.

This study aims to show the relation of the methods of county financing in Texas to the present form of county government. It argues that the present form of county government in Texas is antiquated and inadequate to meet the requirements of efficient administration of county financing.

The purpose of this study is to make an investigation of the changes that have occurred in the powers of the county board of trustees to change boundary lines of school districts in Texas.

Studies indicate that fraud is a growing issue in Sweden, outpacing law enforcement’s efforts to maintain it. There is limited research concerning welfare fraud, the aspects of prevention, and what processes have worked in Sweden. The prevention strategies need to progress towards this development considering that welfare fraud is a crime which affects every person in the welfare state. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate and analyse the prevention strategies against welfare fraud in Sweden through semi-structured interviews with six officials from the County Government of Kalmar and Skåne. The administration process was also investigated with the expectation to identify possible ways to develop preventive strategies. The Situational Action Theory was used as a tool to discuss and describe possible ways to prevent welfare fraud. The result showed that the tendency to report welfare fraud among officials is low. There is also a lack of cooperation between different governmental organisations and significant differences in the control work that varies between being thorough and absent. Although the county governments have started to examine the issue of welfare fraud, the results implicate that the issue is not as heavily prioritized as it needs to be. Future research is crucial. The controls and prevention strategies against welfare fraud within the County Governments needs to be developed further.

Utah County has the second largest county population in the State of Utah and ranks 16th out of 29 in total land area. Over 90% of the County's quarter of a million residents live in the area known as Utah Valley, a relatively narrow strip of land situated between the Wasatch Mountains and Utah Lake. In addition to a large population, most of which was realized during the 1970s, Utah Valley also contains the bulk of the County's important agricultural land. Not surprisingly, the expanding population in Utah Valley has created competition between agricultural and urban uses for limited land area. What is surprising, however, is the extensive amount of relatively undisturbed agricultural land in Utah County that, in spite of rapid urban growth, remains in close proximity to adjacent municipalities.Most of the urban and suburban growth in Utah County has located within the boundaries of existing cities, with little corresponding growth taking place in adjacent unincorporated areas. Research reveals that, of the four most urban counties in the State, Utah County has more fully retained the nuclear pattern of settlement established by the Mormon pioneers who settled the region. Compared with all of the counties in the State, Utah County has the second lowest percent of population living in unincorporated areas. In fact, the unincorporated population in Utah County has actually declined since 1950, in spite of only a normal amount of land falling under city annexations and incorporations.These peculiar characteristics have developed in Utah County as a result of deliberately chosen County-level planning policies designed to protect "greenbelt" land and discourage residential expansion into unincorporated zones.

År 2009 kom en ändring av strandskyddslagen, där bland annat 7 kap. 14 § miljöbalken(MB) fick en ny formulering. Den nya lydelsen innebar en skärpning av kravet för att få utvidga strandskyddet. I samband med lagändringen gav regeringen i uppgift till Länsstyrelsen att utföra en översyn av de utvidgade strandskydden i Sverige och ta nya beslut i de fall som behövdes. Länsstyrelsen fick fram till 31 december 2014 på sig att genomföra översynsarbetet. Eftersom arbetet nyligen är avslutad, finns ännu ingen sammanställning av resultatet på nationell nivå. Naturvårdsverket rekommenderar i sin handbok "Utvidgat strandskydd – en vägledning till underlag och beslut" att Länsstyrelserna tar hjälp av kommunerna vid översynsarbetet. Handboken är dock frivillig för Länsstyrelserna att följa och de kan ha använt sig av olika arbetssätt under översynsarbetet. Studien syftar till att kartlägga hur det utvidgade strandskyddet i Sverige har förändratsunder tiden för översynen, samt kartlägga vad kommunerna anser om Länsstyrelsernasarbete med översynen av det utvidgade strandskyddet. De frågeställningar som besvaras i studien är: • Hur har det utvidgade strandskyddet i Sverige förändrats efter Länsstyrelsens översyn?- Hur skiljer sig förändringarna åt i olika delar av Sverige? • Hur ser kommunerna på det utförda arbetet och dess resultat? En kvantitativ metod har använts, där arealer för utvidgat strandskydd har bearbetats för kartläggningen samt en enkät skickats ut för att besvaras av kommunerna. Resultatet av studien visar att det utvidgade strandskyddet i Sverige över lag har minskat. För enstaka län har en ökning, eller ingen förändring av strandskyddsarealen skett. För hela strandskyddet, det vill säga strandskyddet på land och i vatten sammanräknat, har totalt sett en minskning av arealen skett i 13 län. För två län gäller en ökning och för ett län ingen förändring. Resterande fem län har inte rapporterat in resultatet av översynen och ingår därför inte i kartläggningen. Trots minskningen av arealerna har omkring hälften av Länsstyrelserna beslutat om nya områden för utvidgat strandskydd. Enkätundersökningen visade på blandat resultat. Av 290 kommuner valde 179 att besvara enkäten. Av de svarande var majoriteten, ungefär två tredjedelar nöjda med Länsstyrelsens samarbete, medan ungefär en tredjedel av kommunerna inte var nöjda. / In 2009, an amendment was added to the Shore Act, which included a new formulation for14 § Environmental Code in chapter 7. This reformulation meant a tightening of the requirements to obtain expanded shore protection. In connection with the amendment, the Swedish government tasked the county governments to conduct a review, which would involve extended shore protection in Sweden and take new decisions regarding the shore protection in the cases that where needed. The county governments were given until December 31 2014 to conduct and implement this review process. Since the review recently has been completed, there is yet no compilation of the results. In their manual, "Utvidgat strandskydd – en vägledning till underlag och beslut", the Environmental Protection Agency recommends that each individual county government collaborates with the town governments for further help during the review process. The manual for this process is optional for the county governments to follow; therefore, the county governments may have conducted the review process in various ways. This study aims to identify how the expanded shore protection in Sweden has changed during the time of the review. Furthermore, it identifies the opinions of the town municipalities regarding the county governments review. The issues addressed in the study include: • Based on the Swedish county governments’ review, how has the expansion of shore protection changed?- How do the changes show in the different parts of Sweden? • What is the town governments’ opinion about the changes and results? Within this study a quantitative method was used. Areas for expanding the shore protection were processed for the survey and a questionnaire was developed and sent to town governments to be answered. In general, the results of the study concluded that the expanded shore protection in Sweden overall has declined. Whereas some counties experienced an increase, others have shown no change at all. The shore protection study,which includes the protection on land and in water, demonstrated a reduction of acreage in 13 counties. Two counties reported an increase in acreage, and one county reported no change. The remaining five counties have not reported the results of their review and therefore were not included in the survey. Despite reduction in area, approximately fifty percent of the participating county governments decided on new areas for extending their shoreline. The survey has showed mixed results. Sweden consists of 290 town governments, and 179 chose to answer the questionnaire. About two-thirds of the respondents were satisfied with the cooperation of the county governments, and about one-third was not satisfied.

Abstract. This thesis project analyzes how the principles and methods of service design, design thinking, and human-centered design research can be utilized to re-imagine a county-level parks department, specifically Allegheny County Parks. Allegheny County Parks is a system of nine parks that have suffered for 30+ years from deferred maintenance, funding cuts, and other shortages. Boyce Park, one of the nine County parks, includes a broad range of prototypical park activities. My previous employment and established relationships made Boyce Park an excellent service design case study. To begin the project, I employed exploratory research methods (e.g., literature reviews, observations, participation in services, surveys, and interviews) to understand the design space. Then, generative research methods (e.g., affinity diagrams, personas, stakeholder maps, and service blueprints) led to the identification of key service improvement areas: organizational structure, increase revenue, infrastructure, user-centered park policies and communications. The area of communications was chosen for further exploration, due to its potential as a first step in transforming the parks and affecting the other service improvement areas. Another round of communications-centered exploratory and generative research (e.g., benchmarking and speed dating) was completed, resulting in a new service ecology and communications system proposal for Allegheny County Parks. A portion of the new communications system, specifically a responsive website design for mobile, tablet and desktop platforms, was prototyped. The responsive design, which showcased an activity finder and reservation system, was evaluated through paper prototyping sessions. The feedback from these sessions was implemented within a final HTML prototype.