Leadership in a Large Manager City: The Case of Kansas City

Abstract

Municipal leadership in Kansas City centers on the nonpartisan principle and the council-manager plan. Un like many other cities with nonpartisan requirements, Kansas City has produced a nonpartisan system that has proved workable over a twenty-year period. But continuance depends on the viability of the Citizens Association, a nonpartisan—or bipartisan—group which has dominated Kansas City politics from its inception in 1941 to the present time, with a four-year break from 1959 to 1963. The Association has experienced some difficulty in keeping its leadership vital and in maintaining a sufficiently broad base to permit participation by the diverse elements of the community. The leadership responsibility of the Association, resumed in 1963, is of major importance in maintaining a stable source of power. Also, relations between the mayor and the manager are crucial, as experiences in the immediate past have shown. Under present arrangements, official and private groups are co-operating in achieving public objectives. A new sophistication is now being demanded of those to whom the manager is accountable.