Subject(s): Local government. -- Public administration. -- Finance management. -- Factors affecting contexts of local government administration :Federalism and state law- legal factors constraining and facilitating local initiatives, managing alternatives approaches to provision and production of public goods, practical application of organization development to local governments -- Local government management practices- importance of doing basics well : Strategic management- core responsibility of local government administration, structural arrangements in local government, financial management- centrality of fiscal in local government and politics, managing human resources- personnel administration in local government, total quality management in local government, local government capacity building through performance measures, local court administration -- Administering generic types of local governments : Town and township governmnet- serving rural and suburban communities, small community governance - some impediments of policy making, professional administration in council manager city, changing landscape of big city management, country with externalities- regional councils and challenges of management and governance, managing single function governments- promise and challenge of special districts, political and administrative complexity in governing central city schools, management and governance in midsized urban and suburban school districts, local government governing capacity