I commend your willingness to assure the unique opportunities and challenges within rural America are fully appreciated as these critical public policy decisions are discussed, designed, and implemented. I have been asked to provide background regarding the implications of ACS for the quality of data received by rural communities and the ability of rural communities to make effective use of the data received from the Census Bureau. The Challenge of Rural Governance Economic and demographic transition, and alterations in our fundamental assumptions about governance are changing the fortunes of rural communitiesCsome for the better and some for worse.
Economic transition includes changes in technology, globalization, and localization.
Important demographic transitions include the aging of the population, and migration, commuting and settlement pattern shifts. Changes in governance include the processes of devolution, decentralization of decision making, performance-based evaluation, and privatization. One of the more important trends affecting rural communities is localization of the growing role of local conditions and local choices in determining the prosperity of a community. However, if these shifts in policy making loci are to be beneficial to local communities, greater local decision making expertise must be developed and more informed understandings of the local consequences of public policy alternatives must be utilized. At the Federal level, there is an ever increasing need for more precise assessments of the local consequences of federal policies, regulations, and program implementation and evaluation techniques.