Democratic Legitimacy in Bureaucratic Structures: A Precarious Balance

Competing Public Values Amidst Fiscal Crisis: The Case of State Takeover System in Michigan

“…As in the other distressed cities, Flint's case illustrates a tension between centralization and self-governance (Buckwalter & Balfour, 2020). The nodal value that stands out is the democratic value of self-governance or local control, and both centralization and city administrator as intervention strategies co-occur with local control.…”

“…For example, Levine et al (1981a) contend that a fundamental trade-off in retrenchment is whether to "centralize and limit representative and responsive government, or leave authority more or less fragmented but open to interest group access, limiting the ability of government to prioritize and target cutbacks" (p. 627). Therefore, pursuing the path of centralization to resolve fiscal emergency may require strong control mechanisms that may ultimately constrain democratic representation and self-governance (Buckwalter & Balfour, 2020).…”

“…Local elected officials may not be able to successfully adopt and implement much-needed cuts that are politically unpopular (Levine, 1978(Levine, , 1979; hence, in an effort to restore fiscal health through enhanced fiscal accountability, a temporary interruption of democratic governance is justified. The case of the Flint Water Crisis, which erupted under the control of EM, however, calls into question whether it is worthwhile to suspend local democracy for the sake of fiscal accountability, even in the short run (Buckwalter & Balfour, 2020;Fasenfest, 2021;Hughes et al, 2021;Nickels, 2019).…”