Local Governments' Use of Citizen Surveys

Sample surveys of citizens are increasingly advocated as an important data-gathering technique for local public offlicials. Two articles describing the value of surveys for public managers appeared in 1979 and 1980 issues of the Public Administration Review.' Both the 1980 annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration and the 1980 annual conference of the American Society for Public Opinion Reseach featured panel sessions on the use of citizen surveys by local governments. According to the advocates of citizen surveys, urban administrators should use surveys to gather (1) factual information, such as data on crime victimization, (2) information on citizen needs and preferences, and (3) information on citizen satisfaction levels and subjective evaluations of governmental services. Publications of the Urban Institute have recommended that cities annually conduct such surveys,2 and several prominent cities have institutionalized the use of regular citizen surveys within the performance monitoring process. Faced with the attention, advocacy, and praise given citizen surveys for promoting responsiveness and efficiency, urban managers may want to know more about how to implement surveys. There is no shortage of advice. Unfortunately, the comes in such different forms that managers may have difficulty assessing its applicability and utility, and even whether the different types of are mutually compatible. Also, little has been written describing the experience of those cities that have most successfully incorporated regular citizen surveys into the ongoing managerial processes. What, then, is the of the advice as it currently exists in the literature, and what is the state of the art as it is currently practiced?