City Council Legislative Committees and Policy-making in Large United States Cities

Who or What Governs?: The Effects of Economics, Politics, Institutions, and Needs on Local Spending

“…Institutional structure is a fourth factor that according to many helps to constrain local government decisions (Pelissero & Krebs, 1997;Sass, 2000;Sharp, 1991). Institutionalists do not deny the existence of any of the other factors that have already been mentioned.…”

“…In policymaking, Stone suggests, the preferences of corporate elites will be prominent, but attenuated by the preferences of elected officials who must attend to their voters' demands if they are to maintain power. 1 To these views can be added new institutionalists who argue that electoral and governmental structures play a central role in shaping outcomes (Pelissero & Krebs, 1997;Sass, 2000;Sharp, 1991;Sharp & Maynard-Moody, 1991) and still others who counter that local government is essentially a bureaucracy that distributes goods and services in a relatively efficient and fair manner (Mladenka, 1980). Who is right?…”

Interaction Frequency and Quality as Two Dimensions of Complementarity: An Empirical Examination of Some Contingency Variables

“…City managers may find it relatively difficult to understand the expectations of the council (because of the size of the council) so there might be more potential for conflict with elected officials who may feel their preferences were not properly taken into account by the manager in the policy implementation phase (e.g., Carrel 1962). Large councils may also have a negative impact on interaction frequency as it may encourage city managers and elected officials to rely mostly on hearings or council meetings as an efficient means of interaction (e.g., Pelissero and Krebs 1997). I hypothesize that council size has a negative impact on both interaction frequency and quality.…”

“…City managers may find it relatively difficult to understand the expectations of the council so there might be more potential for conflict with elected officials who feel their preferences are not properly taken into account by the manager in the policy implementation phase (Carrel 1962). Large councils may also have a negative impact on interaction frequency as it may encourage city managers and elected officials to rely mostly on hearings or council meetings as an efficient means of interacting with elected officials (Pelissero and Krebs 1997). Also, the percentage of council members elected at-large (vs. ward-based) is important in that at-large members are more likely to develop a holistic perspective on policy problems and this may encourage them to avoid pursuing particularistic policies that would serve only the interest of the neighborhood from which votes for the individual council member come.…”

Structure, spending, and democracy : a study of municipal governments.

“…Institutions matter, and different institutions produce different results (Frederickson, Johnson, & Wood, 2004;Park, McCabe, & Feiock, 2010). These differences in behavior and policy outcomes are due to structure, regardless of socio-economic and environmental factors (Lineberry & Fowler, 1967;Pelissero & Krebs, 1997). "Political institutions define the framework within which politics takes place" (March & Olsen, 1983, p. 18), and "constitute the 'rules of the game' for any political society" (Clingermayer & Feiock, 2001, p. vii).…”