Political Economy and Local Democracy

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This session will bring together four papers that address the intersection of local democratic institutions and features of the political economy. Each of the authors sheds light on understudied localities and local institutions, and together, they provide insight into the broader forces that shape process and outcomes in local politics. Two of the papers, by Highmith and Thom, interrogate how localities’ economic development shapes their political and civic institutions. The other two papers, by Sahn and Collins, focus on specific institutions—neighborhood governance organizations and school boards—to better understand the circumstances under which they channel citizen preferences into organized demands. Highsmith’s paper examines “company towns” as a way of understanding the economic, political, and legal forces that allow corporate interests to shape local governance in the United states. Thom’s paper also focuses on industry-dominated localities but turns to their demise, studying how federal policy interventions that address economic decline fail to ameliorate the decline of civic institutions. Sahn’s paper highlights a particular and understudied kind of civic institution, neighborhood groups, documenting the historical circumstances that led to their rise as a core part of urban governance and gathering original evidence on their activities and organization. Collins’s paper turns to school boards to understand how these institutions shape the composition of commenters and substance of comments that reach public officials. Together, these papers demonstrate how the institutions of local governance and the mechanics of political participation are each shaped by comparatively distinctive features of the American political economy.

Sub Unit

• Division 61: American Political Economy

Individual Presentations

• The Company Town: Private Power and Public Governance - Brian Highsmith, Harvard University

• Politics and Policy in Mono-Industrial Communities - Elizabeth Thom, Harvard University

• Neighborhood Democracy: The Hidden Layer of Federalism - Alexander Laurence Sahn, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

• Who Gives Public Comment? - Jonathan Collins, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Municipality Size and Dimensions of Conflict in Local Politics - Anna Weissman, University of California, Berkeley

Chair

• Elizabeth Mitchell Elder Stanford University

Discussant

• Patricia Kirkland Columbia University - School of International & Public Affairs