Richard C. Kearney is professor and director of the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University. He was previously on the faculty of the University of Connecticut, Storrs, East Carolina University, and the University of South Carolina. His research on human relations management, public administration, and state and local politics and administration has been published in Public Administration Review, Public Personnel Management, Administration and Society, Publius, Urban Affairs Review, Policy Studies Journal, and many other journals. The 9th edition of his book (with Ann O’M Bowman) State and Local Government will be published in 2012. He received his Ph. D in political science from the University of Oklahoma in 1977.