A Study of Municipal Governments. Neal Mcintyre Turpin University of Louisville
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University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 8-2016 Structure, spending, and democracy : a study of municipal governments. Neal McIntyre Turpin University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the Political Science Commons, and the Urban Studies Commons Recommended Citation Turpin, Neal McIntyre, "Structure, spending, and democracy : a study of municipal governments." (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2541. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2541 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The nivU ersity of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The nivU ersity of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STRUCTURE, SPENDING, AND DEMOCRACY: A STUDY OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS By Neal McIntyre Turpin B.A., Transylvania University, 2009 M.P.A., University of Louisville, 2011 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Urban and Public Affairs Department of Urban and Public Affairs University of Louisville Louisville, KY August 2016 Copyright 2016 by Neal McIntyre Turpin All rights reserved STRUCTURE, SPENDING, AND DEMOCRACY: A STUDY OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS By Neal McIntyre Turpin B.A., Transylvania University, 2009 M.P.A., University of Louisville, 2011 A Dissertation Approved on May 10, 2016 by the following Dissertation Committee: ___________________________________ Dr. Steven Koven ___________________________________ Dr. Janet Kelly ___________________________________ Dr. David Imbroscio ___________________________________ Dr. Jason Gainous ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my wife, Sara, for her unending love, patience, and encouragement throughout this process. Her support knows no bounds. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee, Dr. Steven Koven, Dr. Janet Kelly, Dr. David Imbrosico, and Dr. Jason Gainous for their help, guidance, and advice in writing. Their direction made this possible. I would also like to thank Dr. Matthew Ruther for his assistance. Finally, I wish to thank my parents, Craig and Beth, and my sister, Emma, for their lifelong support and for always stressing the importance of education. iii ABSTRACT STRUCTURE, SPENDING, AND DEMOCRACY: A STUDY OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS Neal Turpin May 10, 2016 The debate over the effect of government structure is one of the most examined aspects of administration. At the municipal level, much of this work has focused on the structural reforms of the Progressive era. Three of these reforms –city managers, at-large elections, and non-partisan elections –were meant to make cities more professional and efficient. Three more –initiatives, referenda, and recalls –were meant to make cities more democratic. A large segment of this literature has studied what effects these structures have on local government spending, and results have been mixed. This dissertation seeks to examine what effects structural reform elements currently have on municipal spending. The main proposition is that differences in local government spending are no longer due to professional structures as they were in the past, and that future differences will have more to do with democratic elements. The results presented here support this thesis. Using information from the Lincoln Institute and the ICMA, this dissertation updates previous research on spending data for 111 cities to see what changes may have occurred since structures were last examined. In addition, a new national level dataset was created showing how often direct democracy measures were used in each city in order to examine the effect of their use, not simply their presence. iv Results from this study show that professional structures are no longer associated with lower levels of spending. The use of direct democracy measures was associated with different levels of spending. Cities with higher rates of initiative use were found to have higher per capita spending levels, and were more likely to focus spending on social services rather than police. Race was the most significant demographic factor, with spending levels going down as cities became less diverse. As democratic structures seem to have more of an effect on spending than professional structures, the last chapter suggests new avenues for study. In particular, newer democratic structures such as participatory budgeting are spreading, creating new opportunities for involvement and research. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv List of Tables vii Chapter 1, Structure, Spending, and Democracy: An Introduction 1 Chapter 2, Professional Reforms 17 Chapter 3, Direct Democracy Reforms 37 Chapter 4, A Survey of Previous Research 54 Chapter 5, Data and Findings 66 Chapter 6, Summary and Future Research 106 References 118 Appendix A, Ballot Measure List 131 Appendix B, Spending Levels and Percent by City 157 Appendix C, Professional Reforms 161 Appendix D, Direct Democracy Reforms 165 Appendix E, Demographic Variables 172 Curriculum Vita 176 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Per Capita Expenditures 2012 78 Table 2 Professional Reforms 79 Table 3 Direct Democracy Reforms 80 Table 4 Other Variables 80 Table 5 Correlation Matrix, Direct Spending 82 Table 6 Two Sample T-Tests, Direct Spending Per Capita 83 Table 7 Correlation Matrix, Police Spending Per Capita 84 Table 8 Two Sample T-Tests, Police Spending Per Capita 85 Table 9 Two Sample T-Tests, Social Service Spending Per Capita 85 Table 10 Correlation Matrix, Social Service Spending Per Capita 86 Table 11 Correlation Matrix, Percent Police Spending 88 Table 12 Two Sample T-Tests, Percentage Police Spending 89 Table 13 Two Sample T-Tests, Percentage Social Service Spending 89 Table 14 Correlation Matrix, Percent Social Service Spending 90 Table 15 Multivariate Analysis of Direct Spending 91 Table 16 Multivariate Analysis of Police Spending 93 Table 17 Multivariate Analysis of Social Service Spending 94 Table 18 Multivariate Analysis of Percentage Police Spending 95 Table 19 Multivariate Analysis of Percentage Social Service Spending 96 Table 20 Multivariate Analysis of Social Service Spending (No Flint) 97 vii Table 21 Multivariate Analysis of Percentage Social Service Spending (No Flint) 98 viii CHAPTER I STRUCTURE, SPENDING, AND, DEMOCRACY: AN INTRODUCTION Government structure is one of the most frequently examined aspects of politics and administration. Scholars and practitioners alike have tried to determine the effect of structuring and restructuring organizations in different ways. Is one type better? Do certain structures make an organization more efficient? More competitive? More responsive? What effect do the people who make up the organization have on how it works? If a government is inefficient, is it the environment, the people, or structures which are to blame? Scholars have looked at nearly every level of government organization, from the federal government to the local parks department. One of the most diverse forms of government organizations, however, are cities. Cities of all sizes, populations, geographies, economies, and cultures exist in the US, and they are made up of a startling number of structural combinations. This work will examine municipal government structures and their effect on political outcomes, specifically on spending. In addition, the structures themselves will be reviewed, exploring their various histories, strengths, and weaknesses. While there are many types of local governments (school districts, water districts, etc.), the exclusive 1 focus of this work will be general purpose municipalities. Municipal governments will be examined using the ideas of structure, spending, and democracy. The main proposition and central thesis of this dissertation is that differences in spending between local governments are no longer due to professional structures as they were in the past, and that future differences will have more to do with democratic elements. In past studies, the focus has largely been on economic inefficiency and in some cases social inefficiency, which is the belief that people do not (or cannot) consider the full cost of their political actions to the general public. However, future work should take into consideration democratic inefficiency, which is the idea that a government’s level of citizen input and participation does not facilitate an optimal decision making process. Municipal Reform At the local level, the debate over municipal structure has focused primarily on the elements and results of the Progressive reform movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Growing cities had produced growing problems, and the goals that drove most reformers were to make government better, more honest, and more efficient. In the late 1800s, immigration and industrialization had brought millions of people into American cities. This produced a climate favorable to political machines (Banfield & Wilson, 1963; Harrigan & Vogel, 2000; Hofstadter, 1955). Machines sought to gain power, control votes, and win elections. Their system of patronage, favoritism, and little accountability