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While Dantzig and Wolfe have formulated the decomposition algorithm as a computational device, it was subsequently recognized that the principle underlying the algorithm may also be utilized by a planning system to achieve a centralized planning within the framework of a decentralized organizational structure. This paper illustrates the workings of such a planning system and, at the same time, explores some of the problems connected with its actual implementation. The planning system under the study is called the decomposed planning system in order to distinguish it from either the centralized planning or the decentralized planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article is an effort to present the new decentralism as one of the many philosophies of the present age, which are competing for the right to structure the nature of the coming social order. It is not that communal decentralism has been tried and found wanting. Rather it has not been tried at all. What is now needed is a systematic, public program of education in the decentralist philosophy and systematic research to give concrete form and substance to that philosophy by community planning and design if only on paper, which will make use of those forms of science and technology which lend themselves to community planning on a small scale. Such research should also block out the relationships between inescapable types of centralization needed in the modern world and the projected forms of decentralized communities and institutions. Only in this way can decentralists give substance to economist Paul Goodman's notions of decentralization and the mixed system. One cannot predict whether decentralization will get a second chance. What one can be sure of, however, is that with the help of science and technology it can be shown to furnish feasible solutions to some of the problems. Whether mankind will listen or whether the inertia of traditional thought and social habit will forever eclipse the possibilities for decentralization is something that only time will settle.

This paper examines conceptual problems that arise when one has to specify production functions having public goods as an input. First, of particular interest is under what specifications the Samuelson conditions are meaningful or even valid. Secondly, I examine problems that arise when pure public goods enter production functions as unpriced inputs. For example, when unpriced private goods enter production functions of certain specifications they earn a rent that accrues to entrepreneurs as profits. These profits may attract entrants into the industry to dissipate the rents. For private goods this dissipation causes factor usage distortions as analysed extensively in the literature (Worcester, 1969; Meade, 1955). The question is whether rent dissipation with unpriced pure public intermediate inputs causes factor usage distortions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the administrative decentralization and political power. By mid-50s it was possible to discern emerging conflicts of doctrine and practice among those who previously applauded and defended bureaucrats. A major shift of outlook and values in governmental design seemed to be taking place. By the middle of the 19th century, however, legislative supremacy, the long ballot and the spoils system resulted in widespread disillusionment, which in turn gave impetus to efforts to take administration out of politics by lodging it in independent boards and commissions and by introducing the merit system to break the hold of parties on the bureaucracies. Different segments of the population feel differentially disadvantaged by the governmental machinery in operation at any given moment and agitate for structural changes to improve their position. It has long been recognized that much public policy is shaped largely by clusters of bureaus, their organized clienteles and legislative committees and legislators specializing in each public function.

The article presents a study that examines the characteristics of departmental managers in Great Britain. Managers in various organizations were studied to determine common managerial characteristics, including level of qualification, personal flexibility, and expected behavior. The stereotype of the departmental manager as a 'bureaucratic man' or 'organization man' is described, and research results in opposition to these perceptions are also discussed. Some aspects of managers' personal orientation discovered in the study are considered.

The article looks at the delegation of authority and responsibility within management control. There must be delegations between higher and lower echelons of management to a lower echelon, in order for the lower echelons to exercise discretion, develop skills in handling situations which call for managerial intervention, and share in responsibility for the success or failure of such interventions. The author notes that if complete delegation is practiced, higher management levels become useless, as full authority and responsibility for decisions are being assumed by the lower levels of management. A situation like this could bring into question the purpose and existence of the higher level of management.

The article reports on a study of line supervisors, their relationship with factory staff, and the organizational structure, including delegation of authority. The focus of the study is an international manufacturing firm that is multi-industrial, multi-plant, divisionalized, and decentralized. Three levels of line supervision are analyzed: foremen, general foremen, and superintendents. The Responsibility and Authority Plan was developed during the study, which began in 1957 and continued into 1962. It emphasized two ideas: decisions about delegating authority to subordinates should be based on their ability to use it; and the degree of authority each individual has should be communicated accurately along with statements of responsibility. Four degrees of authority are mentioned.

The article focuses on goal setting and self-control in management. It states that Goals and Controls was designed as a management system to encourage active participation of employees in creating tangible work goals and gaining a measure of self-control over work activities. It mentions a primary goal of the system was to distribute authority so that decision-making would be made at the proper levels in the organization. It states that due to rapid increases in the size of the economy and pressures for decentralization created a continued need for the delegation of authority throughout the organization.

Presents a comparative study of leadership in industry and the nursing profession. Executive development in industry and the nursing profession; Emphasis on the need for decentralization of authority; Role of discipline in management education.

A problem of considerable theoretical and practical significance is that of the form which community structure will assume in underdeveloped areas as they become urbanized. Data presented here, which are drawn from decennial censuses and field observation, show that the marked urban growth in Mexico during the last half century has been highly centralized: in general, rates have been in direct proportion to the size of the city. But very high rates of increase for about a third of the small- and medium-sized cities since 1940 and the emergence of greater functional specialization among the suburban towns within the Mexico City metropolitan area may indicate an incipient trend toward decentralization. Since many of the economic, political, and cultural factors associated with this growth pattern are not unique to Mexico, the Mexican case suggests the hypothesis that centralization will continue to be characteristic of urban growth during its initial phases in most underdeveloped areas, in spite of the fact that technological traits of modern culture often identified with decentralization may be present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the crucial questions involved in the decentralization of industry is its effects on the security of rural populations and communities. An examination of an area which has long experienced decentralization, rural Massachusetts, reveals that: 1. rural workers in depressions are adversely effected earlier in the business cycle than urban workers and experience recovery more slowly; 2. rural workers have more intermittent unemployment than urban workers; 3. rural workers have not been able to supplement adequately income from industry with farming or other economic enterprises; 4. by virtue of the greater hazards of income and employment they have a higher raw of dependency than either rural-farm or urban-industrial populations; 5. rural factories have a higher rate of mortality and mobility resulting in the stranding of populations; 6. rural communities encouraging industries to locate experienced new maladjustments. In spite of this evidence, there are cogent reasons for decentralizing industry. Indications of a national trend in this direction suggests the need for additional protections for rural America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symposium is an attempt to bring attention to bear upon matters of importance for public administration, without being certain what these matters are. In a "participatory administration" symposium it was thought that special attention should be given to the "maximum feasible participation" language of the Economic Opportunity Act and the experience therewith. "The Dialectical Organization--An Alternative to Bureaucracy" is a presentation by, Orion F. White, of some ideas and data, which the editors had seen in a different version. The ideas were so fresh and provocative, so germane to "participation" and its alternatives, that he was requested to make a special presentation for the symposium. Essay "Hierarchy, Human Nature and the Participative Panacea," by Herbert Wilcox is a shortened and more narrowly focused version. In another essay "The Culture Trait of Hierarchy in Middle-Class Children," Wilcox continues and expands his treatment of hierarchy in human organization. By intention of the editors, this is a devil's advocate piece.