Intergovernmental relationships and the American city: The impact of federal policies on local policy -making processes.
Allard, Scott William
1999
Abstract
This dissertation argues that federal intergovernmental policies set the parameters around legitimate local policy-making activity and political participation, shaping local perceptions of what local policy can be and who can be involved. Borrowing concepts from principal-agent contracting theory to advance our understanding of the impact of intergovernmental relationships on local policymaking processes, this dissertation models how federal programs fix the intergovernmental relationships that shape local strategic policy-making behavior. The nature of information disparities, policy incentives, monitoring devices, and repeated interactions---the core elements of a hierarchical contract---frame the intergovernmental relationships surrounding a particular federal intergovernmental policy. In turn, these relationships come to define local perceptions of legitimate policy activity and patterns of local political participation that carry forward to future local policy decisions. Functioning strategically, local actors will conform their pursuit of extra-contractual policy and political aspirations to the surrounding intergovernmental institutional incentive patterns. To assess the extent to which intergovernmental policies structure local policy-making activity, this dissertation examines the impact of two federal intergovernmental programs (the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and the Model Cities program of 1966) on policy-making processes in four case study cities (Huntsville, AL; Birmingham, AL; Detroit, MI; and Grand Rapids, MI). Archival records and personal interviews with local officials in each city indicate that federal intergovernmental programs constrain the strategic considerations of local actors. Each federal intergovernmental policy transforms local policy-making institutions, agendas, and learning processes in a similar manner across all four cities, despite the fact that the each city's policy-making context varied widely prior to implementation of the two programs. The case study findings generate a number of interesting insights into how the hierarchical structure of the federal intergovernmental institutional environment affects local policy-making processes. First, the range of viable policy options available to local elites is in large part a function of the intergovernmental policy environment, as federal policies provide incentives for certain types of local policies and checks on other types of policy options. Next, by defining legitimate local policy activity and casting participatory advantage to certain political actors, intergovernmental policy also shapes local policy-making institutions. With this approach to federalism and urban politics, federal intergovernmental policies are not additives to local policy decision-making that fade once programs end, but agents of local policy-making processes long past the life or purpose of the federal program.Subjects
American City Federal Policies Impact Intergovernmental Local Policy-making Processes Relationships Urban Politics
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