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Abstract
The United States is in the midst of massive devolution or decentralization
of domestic programs in health care, welfare, and
other functions. With devolution come greatly increased responsibilities
for local governments. As local governments are assuming
more responsibility for policymaking, management, and implementation
of important national goals, it is important to consider their
capacity or ability to take on these added responsibilities. This article
asks critical questions, poses problems entailed in measuring capacity,
challenges the question of whether local governments have
the necessary capacity to undertake new demands being placed on
them, and discusses the special capacity-building needs of local governments.
It may be more important for local governments to be
able to obtain additional capacity to meet new challenges than for
them to have the capacity in order to be ready to receive the new
challenges. In a sense, it is irrelevant whether they have the capacity
because the federal government with considerable public support
has decided that local governments will take on more responsibility
for domestic programs. The question, then, is what can be done to
help them perform their expanded roles as well as possible. Information
sharing, networking, removing barriers to local flexibility
and creativity, and technical assistance are some of the opportunities
higher-level governments and other technical assistance providers,
such as universities, have for increasing the capacity of local governments.