Public and Private Institutions, Political Action, and the Practice of Local Government

Local government politics and political institutions are undergoing rapid changes as they adapt to changing social, political, and economic conditions. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing local governments in the coming years lies in forging new understandings of how to govern in a world increasingly beset by new institutional forms, like private government and quasi-governmental institutions, and by constantly changing populations. We selected the articles included in this symposium with these challenges in mind. These papers were initially presented at a conference supported by Florida State University’s DeVoe Moore Center in February 2006. The call for papers for the symposium was issued broadly, and the eight articles published here were among ten presented at the meeting. We selected papers that addressed issues of political behavior, the development of public and private institutions, and the intersection of behavior and institutions in the practice of local government. The initial two articles focus on the structure and functions of new forms of governments in cities. Robert Nelson describes the rise of private governments as providers of public services in urban areas. He reports on the explosive growth of neighborhood associations in the United States, discusses the evolution of a variety of types of private associations, and argues that state governments should alter their constitutions to better accommodate the reality of private governance institutions. In their article, Barbara Coyle McCabe and Jill Tao examine the scope of activities undertaken by homeowner associations. They report data from a national survey of homeowner associations undertaken with the cooperation of the peak professional group that represents them. They portray an industry in which organizations appear to be more interested in providing limited services to supplement those provided by local governments than in supplanting local governments. However, to the extent that private associations are able to provide services without duplicating what their members are paying for through taxation, they are willing to do so. McCabe and Tao point to a large new agenda for public services research and for students of public management, as privatized governments are in many ways hybrid organizations with powers, responsibilities, and career ladders that differ from either fully public or private organizations. 1119