Political Ethos and the Structure of City Government

Abstract

For years specialists in local politics have deplored the anecdotal quality of literature in the field and have called for theoretically-based comparative research. One of the most stimulating and ambitious attempts in this direction is Edward C. Banfield and James Q. Wilson's theory of “public-regardingness” and “private-regardingness,” which states that much of what Americans think about the political world can be subsumed under one or the other of these conflicting orientations and that the prevalence of one ethos over the other influences the style, structure, and outcome of local politics. Banfield and Wilson attribute these two ethics to different elements in the population and hypothesize that a number of political forms and policies are manifestations of each ethos. We intend to examine the associations between these hypothesized consequences and the demographic characteristics that are said to be the bases of the two ethics.

Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880-1935

“…A final factor that has also been linked to the adoption of municipal reform is city size. Although studies of different types of reform measures have found size to have a varying impact on adoption (e.g., Kessel, 1962;Schnore and Alford, 1963), studies that have specifically examined civil service reform have found a simple positive relationship between the adoption of the reform and city size (cf., Wolfinger and Field, 1966). City size was logged to normalize its distribution.…”

A Tale of Two Cities: Bureaucratisation in Mayor-Council and Council-Manager Municipalities

“…Studies of different types of administrative reforms have found population size to have a varying and non-consistent impact on the adoption of those measures (Keswell 1962, Schnore andAlford 1963). However, as Tolbert and Zucker (1983) point out, studies that have specifically examined civil service reforms have found a simple positive relation between city size and CSC adoption (Wolfinger andField 1966, Tolbert andZucker 1983). Ruhil (2003;166) shows that population size exerts a direct effect on the adoption of municipal civil service reform for the period 1900-1940.…”

City Caesars?

“…This conception is reflected in a long string of urban politics scholarship on reform structures and election systems adopted by cities early in the twentieth century. Scholars have sought to explain the adoption and persistence of reform institutions (Banfield and Wilson 1963;Wolfinger and Field 1966;Bridges 1997) and the effects on city spending (Lineberry and Fowler 1967;Morgan and Pelissero 1980) and a variety of other policy outcomes. In general, this literature has treated the organization of large cities as a dichotomous variable-cities have either a mayor-council or a council-manager system.…”