Juliet Musso

Designing Web Technologies for Local Governance Reform: Good Management or Good Democracy?

This article examines the extent to which innovative applications of Web technology might advance local governance reform. Synthesizing theories from communications, public policy, urban political science, and political philosophy, it develops a theoretical framework for local governance reform that emphasizes two dimensions: entrepreneurial (good management) versus participatory (good democracy). The entrepreneurial model envisions the city primarily as a local service provider, while the participatory model stresses the civic character of cities. A structured content analysis of 270 municipal Web sites in California is then analyzed to examine the extent to which applications of Internet technology support these models of reform. We conclude that most municipal Web sites lack a clear mission and provide few of the features that might effect meaningful improvements to local governance. The few that promote a particular approach appear more likely to support an entrepreneurial than a participatory model of reform. Only a few exemplary sites provide a rich array of information and structure communications channels in a fashion that might improve democratic processes.

The Democratic Prospects of Network Governance

This article considers the democratic implications of the shift toward policy making and implementation through networks, integrating articles presented at a 2003 conference on democratic network governance. The authors argue that the effect of increased cross-sectoral and civil society involvement in governing has been to stretch liberal democratic processes to comprise greater numbers of actors involved in lateral network relationships. Although network governance has the potential to promote deliberation and to improve flexibility and responsiveness in service provision, it also raises serious issues regarding equity, accountability, and democratic legitimacy. There is a need to improve political coherence through, for example, steering or metagovernance of governance activities. Important questions for future research involve the character of actors who will take responsibility for metagovernance (e.g., politicians or public administrators) and the approaches they will use to steer governance processes.

Electronic Democracy and the Diffusion of Municipal Web Pages in California

Although the Internet has been touted as a means to improve democratic governance, there has been little systematic analysis of its use. The authors analyze the diffusion of municipal Web sites that include information concerning a specific locality. The analysis is based on demographic and fiscal data from 454 California cities and two surveys of Web site adoption. The authors’ theoretical framework draws from the political economy and technology diffusion literatures. City size, government resources, concentration of social-economic elites, and voter registration levels are the most significant predictors of adoption. In contrast to previous adoption studies, the authors find that liberal political ideology and experience with advanced communication technologies do not appreciably increase the probability of adoption.

MUNICIPAL SERVICE PROVISION CHOICES WITHIN A METROPOLITAN AREA

The authors investigate the decision of municipal governments to out source the provision of public services during the 1980s and 1990s—a period of increased responsibility for municipalities. This study extends previous empirical work on outsourcing by distinguishing the type of outsourcing used (e.g., public, private, or other types of providers) and treating the out sourcing decision as a dynamic choice. Institutional characteristics and fiscal stress are found to play an important role in explaining service choices. Multinomial logistic regressions indicate that outsourcing was more common for poor cities than for wealthier ones, with the former often relying on government agencies and the latter opting for privatization. Throughout time, these choices are likely to reinforce interjurisdictional patterns of disparity in service quality and costs.

Representation in Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations: A Conceptual Framework:

It is held that nonprofit and voluntary organizations contribute to democratic governance by representing the interests of their constituents to the state. Yet little is known about the capacities of these organizations to represent effectively their constituents and the larger community. This study proposes a framework for understanding the varieties of representation in nonprofit and voluntary organizations. The authors argue that the nature of representation within an organization is indicated by five dimensions: substantive, symbolic, formal, descriptive, and participatory representation. Formal, descriptive, and participatory representation are different means of achieving substantive and symbolic representation; the latter being measures of the extent to which organizations “act for” and “stand for” particular constituencies. They further suggest that this conceptual framework serves as a useful first step toward examining the representational capacities of nonprofit organizations. Two illustrative cases of community-based organizations are presented to tease out the complexity of representational mixes found in nonprofits.

Neighborhood Governance Reform and Networks of Community Power in Los Angeles

This article applies network theory to consider the effects of neighborhood council reform on city governance in Los Angeles. The authors argue that neighborhood councils have the potential to change elite-dominated governance through several network effects: development of bridging social capital—network relationships that cross-cut traditional community cleavages, broadening of horizontal networks that improve information required for collective action, and creation of newties that elevate previously peripheral groups in the system of political communication. Based on field research and a network survey of neighborhood council board members, the authors find that although bonding ties help facilitate collective action, they also maintain social stratification because they develop between similar groups and involve status seeking. The development of weaker bridging ties among more diverse groups appears to promote mobilization through information sharing. Thus, bonding and bridging ties appear to play complementary roles in promoting information dissemination and mobilization among neighborhood councils.

The Political Economy of City Formation in California: Limits to Tiebout Sorting

Objective. This paper analyzes the extent to which voter behavior in city formation elections supports Tiebouts (1956) hypothesis that residential sorting facilitates efficiency of local service provision. It develops a two‐stage model of city formation to distinguish agenda setting from voter outcomes on city formation proposals. Methods. Logit analysis is used to analyze voting in 71 city formation elections, incorporating Heckmans two‐stage procedure to correct for self‐selection of local referenda. Results. Community fiscal and demographic factors influence agenda setting more than voting behavior. Wealthier communities in high‐growth counties are more likely to propose formation of a city. In contrast, community characteristics have little influence on electoral outcomes, suggesting that boundedly rational voters rely on information heuristics. Conclusions. Although reduction of diversity did not appear to motivate city formation, sorting around residential income, land use preferences, and other demographic variables may facilitate relative efficiency of service provision.

Fiscal Consequences of Concentrated Poverty in a Metropolitan Region

Abstract Poverty concentration has a significant negative effect on the fiscal health of cities in that it increases spending on antipoverty programs and also raises the cost of providing more general public services such as police and fire protection. Spending patterns among Southern California cities over the last two decades show that poverty strongly influences local public expenditures after controlling for demographic, institutional, and fiscal characteristics of cities. Moreover, the fiscal burden of poverty has increased more rapidly for general expenditures than it has for antipoverty programs per se. Because the general service impacts of poverty are typically uncompensated under state and federal fiscal policies, poor cities experience significantly higher uncompensated costs and face growing fiscal pressures. These pressures reinforce patterns of poverty and inequality within the Southern California region and likely fuel exurbanization and environmental degradation.

Experiments with Local Federalism Secession and the Neighborhood Council Movement in Los Angeles

Federalism involves allocation of powers between units of government at different geographic levels. In local areas, changes in relationships between units of government may be effected through incorporation or disincorporation, annexation, formation of new layers of government, or interjurisdictional agreements. It may be difficult for residents who seek change to achieve it through alteration of jurisdictional boundaries or intergovernmental hierarchical relationships, however, they may gain similar benefits through intrajurisdictional arrangements such as neighborhood organizations. Such strategies of change from within are common, however, in an interesting variation, failed efforts at forming new jurisdictions through secession from the City of Los Angeles have occurred during startup of a neighborhood program intended to give greater voice to subjurisdictional areas. The article examines this situation, suggesting that formation of intrajurisdictional units may operate as an alternative form of local federalism.

Cross-Talk: The Role of Homophily and Elite Bias in Civic Associations

We examine the manner in which voluntary associations expose individuals to differing perspectives, or “cross-talk.” Specifically we develop hypotheses based on the interactive roles of elite bias and homophily in structuring networks of democratic participation and test them on social network data of Los Angeles neighborhood councils. We find that homophily leads to boards less diverse than their communities, but does not lead to homogeneous cliques within boards. Moreover, we find that elite bias and homophily counteract each other in lower-status communities, leading to more diverse boards than would be predicted by homophily alone. We then examine the effects of assortative mixing on political attitudes and collective action, and find weak support for the proposition that associational diversity promotes tolerance and access to information.