by Terry Besser
Assistant Professor and Extension Sociologist
Iowa State University
"The schools are great, but watch out for the pot holes." That sentence could be the opening line of a song about small towns in Iowa. According to a recent survey conducted by Iowa State University, small town governments must be doing something right. The data below shows the average approval ratings given to various local government services by residents in 99 Iowa towns.
Fire protection,92 percent approval
Emergency response,91 percent
Garbage collection, 88 percent
Public schools, 83 percent
Park conditions, 81 percent
Water,70 percent
Police protection,57 percent
Street conditions, 50 percent
Overall services, 60 percent
These are evaluations for the average small town. However, there is a great deal of variation between individual communities. Residents of almost all towns consistently rate fire protection services and emergency response services very positively. Police protection and the condition of streets are the government services that differ the most in ratings from town to town.
Evaluations of the quality of police protection ranged from a low of 8 percent approval to a high of 94 percent Similarly, the quality of city streets was rated good or very good by only 3 percent of respondents in one community, compared to a high of 94 percent approval.
Notice that the services accorded the highest praise are those most likely to be handled by volunteers in many small towns, performed infrequently, and in crisis situations. The services evaluated most critically are performed by paid city employees and are witnessed daily by almost everyone in town. The hole in the street becomes more irritating every time you have to negotiate around it.
Conversely, most of us will never need the services of the fire department. If we do, the last thing we're thinking about is evaluating its performance (assuming that the fire fighters respond in a timely manner). We're too distraught and worried about the safety of self, family, pets, house and possessions to pay much attention to the activities of fire fighters. It's also much harder to throw stones of criticism at your neighbor who is volunteering his or her time to help people in their time of emergency than it is to poke fun at the local police officer.
Residents' evaluation of the overall quality of local government is more negative than their rating of most specific government services. The influence of all the negative dialogue about GOVERNMENT during political campaigns and on radio and TV talk shows may be reflected in respondents' greater willingness to condemn government in the abstract, while at the same time praising specific government services.
When the survey asked people their overall opinion of government before they were asked to evaluate specific government services, the overall government approval rating was 55 percent. The approval level increased to 66 percent when the questions about specific services were asked before the question asking for an overall evaluation of government. Apparently when people are reminded of what local government does, they rate it higher than when they are asked about government in general.
Likewise, the more involved people are in local organizations, the more positive are their attitudes toward local government. This could reflect the fact that towns with good government encourage more people to get involved, or that the more involved people are, the more they appreciate what government officials do.
When small town residents believe that government is open (people are allowed to contribute if they want to), and responsive (if I called a city official with a complaint, I would get a quick response), they think more positively about government overall. Also, if people liked the quality of their police service, they were more likely to rank government in general higher. Attitudes toward the other specific government services did not have any effect on overall attitudes toward govemment.
Former President Reagan used to say "The scariest sentence in the English language is 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" The ISU study indicates that residents of Iowa's small towns do not share Mr. Reagan's sentiment, at least in regard to their local government. More infommation about the survey of 99 Iowa communities, mentioned above, is available at your county ISU Extension office.
Contacts:
Terry L. Besser, ISU
Extension Sociology, (515) 294-6508
Del Marks, ISU Extension
Communication Systems, (515) 294-9807
