Standards of Excellence: U. S. Residents' Evaluations of Local Government Services

Nevertheless, theirfindings can prove useful in providing city and county practitioners some comparative benchmarks for assessing service delivery in their jurisdictions. Nothing appeals more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.... W1ien we inquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find that...the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is, therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments as well as the mostfree andpopular (David Hume, 1711, as quoted in Neumann-Noell, 1979, p. 145).