Institutional Constraints and Policy Choice: An Exploration of Local Governance

by James C. Clingermayer, Richard C. Feiock

Overview

Institutional arrangements constitute the "rules of the game" for any civil and political society. To understand urban politics and policy making, including issues dealing with economic development, zoning, constituency representation, government borrowing, and service contract decisions, discovering institutional regularities is key. To achieve this the authors combine older institutional approaches emphasizing formal structure and governance organizations with newer approaches and transaction cost theory. Institutional Constraints and Policy Choice contends that institutional arrangements both shape and are shaped by human behavior, and when combined with contextual factors and the uncertainty associated with leadership turnover provide the basis of understanding how decisions are made at the level of local government.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791490945
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	03/29/2001
Series:	SUNY series in Public Administration
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	164
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

James C. Clingermayer is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northern Kentucky University. Richard C. Feiock is Professor of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER 1
Institutional Foundations of Local Governance

CHAPTER 2
Institutional Incentives and Policy Choice

CHAPTER 3
Constituencies, Contacting, and Casework

CHAPTER 4
Leadership Turnover and the Delivery of City Services

CHAPTER 5
Turnover, Time Horizons, and Credible Commitments: The Politics of Long-Term Obligations

CHAPTER 6
External Constraints and Local Policy Choice

CHAPTER 7
Conclusion: Institutions and Local Government

Notes

References

Index

Editorial Reviews

This book could have a profound effect on how we both study and teach local government decision making. It encourages local government scholars to once again include variables representative of local institutional arrangements in equations seeking to explain local government decision making.— J. Edwin Benton, University of South Florida

"Institutional Constraints and Policy Choice should be a standard among urban oriented graduate courses. It summarizes a broad literature and integrates the latest research and methods, and demonstrates the connection between theory, method, and hypothesis testing. It is the best book written on this topic."— Max Neiman, University of California, Riverside"

From the Publisher

Combining older institutional approaches emphasizing formal structure and governance with newer approaches and transaction cost theory, Clingermayer (political science, Northern Kentucky University) and Feiock (public administration and policy, Florida State University) argue that institutional arrangements both shape and are shaped by human behavior. They also examine contextual factors and the uncertainty of leadership in explaining how decisions are made at the level of local government. Chapters center on the institutional foundations of local governance, incentives and policy choice, constituencies, contacting, case work, leadership turnover, the delivery of services, long-term obligations, and external constraints. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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