Does the disposition of public opinion affect the progressivism of public policy? While scholars devote a significant amount of attention to opinion–policy linkages at the national, state, and even county levels in such a manner, a similarly defined relationship in local domains remains untested. In this research note, the author offers an alternative for understanding local representation through an investigation of the relationship between the public’s ideology and government spending patterns in twenty-six urban areas across multiple policy areas. The results indicate that the ideological preferences of citizens are reflected in the spending decisions of governments.
AlfordRobertLeeEugene C.1968. Voting turnout in American cities. American Political Science Review62:796–813.
2.
BerryJeffreyPortneyKentThomasKen. 1993. The rebirth of urban democracy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
3.
BoehmkeFrederick. 2004. Sources of variation in statewide use of the initiative process: The role of interest group populations. Political Research Quarterly58:575–85.
4.
CohenJeffrey. 2006. Public opinion in the states. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
5.
CrawMichael. 2004. Bringing the city back in: Municipal government in U.S. redistributive policy. PhD diss., Indiana University
6.
CrawMichael. 2006. Overcoming city limits: Vertical and horizontal models of local redistributive policymaking. Social Sciences Quarterly87:361–79.
7.
DanielsonMichael N.LewisPaul G.1996. City bound: Political science and the American metropolis. Political Research Quarterly49:203–20.
8.
DeLeonRichard. 1992. Left coast city: Progressive politics in San Francisco, 1975–1991. Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
9.
Delli CarpiniMichael X.KeeterScott. 1996. What Americans know about politics and why it matters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
10.
DonovanToddNeimanMax. 1992. Citizen mobilization and the adoption of local growth control. Western Political Quarterly45:651–75.
11.
EriksonRobert S.MacKuenMichael B.StimsonJames A.2002. The macro polity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
12.
EriksonRobert S.WrightGerald C.McIverJohn P.1993. Statehouse democracy: Public opinion and policy in the American states. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
13.
EulauHeinzPrewittKenneth. 1973. Labyrinths of democracy: Adaptations, linkages, representation, and policies in urban politics. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
14.
FeiockRichardWestJonathan. 1993. Testing competing explanations for policy adoption: Municipal solid waste recycling programs. Political Research Quarterly46:399–419.
15.
FleischmannArnoldGreenGaryKwongTsz Man. 1992. What’s a city to do? Explaining differences in local economic development policies. Western Political Quarterly45:677–700.
16.
FleischmannArnoldPierannunziCarol A.1990. Citizens, development interests, and land-use regulation. Journal of Politics52:838–53.
17.
GarandJames C.HendrickRebecca M.1991. Explaining tradeoffs in the American states: A longitudinal test, 1948–1984. Western Political Quarterly44:915–40.
18.
GoetzEdward G.1994. Expanding possibilities in local development policy: An examination of U.S. cities. Political Research Quarterly47:85–109.
19.
GoetzEdward G.SidneyMara S.1997. Local policy subsystems: An analysis of community development policy change. Urban Affairs Review32:490–512.
20.
GrayVirginiaLoweryDavidFellowesMatthewMcAteeAndrea. 2004. Public opinion, public policy, and organized interests in the American states. Political Research Quarterly57:411–20.
21.
HajnalZoltanTrounstineJessica. 2005. Where turnout matters: The consequences of uneven turnout in city politics. Journal of Politics67(2):515–535.
22.
HansenSusan. 1975. Participation, political structure, and concurrence. American Political Science Review69:1181–99.
23.
HawleyWillis D.1974. Election systems, community power, and public policy: The partisan bias of nonpartisanship. In HawleyWirtFrederick W., eds., Search for community power.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
24.
HeroRodney E.1998. Faces of inequality: Social diversity in American politics. New York: Oxford University Press.
25.
HeroRodney E.2003. Social capital and racial equality in America. Perspectives on Politics1:113–22.
26.
HeroRodney E.TolbertCaroline J.1996. A racial/ethnic diversity interpretation of politics and policy in the states of the U.S. American Journal of Political Science40:851–71.
27.
HillKim QuaileMatsubayashiTetsuya. 2005. Civic engagement and mass-elite policy agenda agreement in American communities. American Political Science Review99:215–24.
28.
JacobyWilliam. 1994. Public attitudes toward government spending. American Journal of Political Science38:336–61.
29.
JohnS.James L. Knight Foundation. 2001. Listening and learning: Community indicator profiles of Knight Foundation communities and the nation, introduction. Miami, FL: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Princeton Survey Research Associates, American Institutes for Research, and the Urban Institute.
30.
JuddDennis. 2005. Everything is always going to hell. Urban Affairs Review41(2):119–131.
31.
KarnigAlbertWalterB. Oliver. 1983. Decline in municipal voter turnout: A function of changing structure?American Politics Quarterly11:491–506.
32.
KaufmanKaren M.2004. The urban voter: Group conflict and mayoral voting behavior in American cities. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
33.
KelleherChristine. 2006. Regional place and city space: How metropolitan configurations influence central city policy responsiveness. Review of Policy Research23(6):1159–1180.
34.
KelleherChristineLoweryDavid. 2004. Political participation and metropolitan institutional contexts. Urban Affairs Review39:720–757.
35.
KelleherChristine A.LoweryDavid. 2009. Central city size, metropolitan institutions, and political participation. British Journal of Political Science39:59–92.
36.
KelleherChristine A.YackeeSusan Webb. 2004. An empirical assessment of devolution’s policy impact. Policy Studies Journal32:253–70.
37.
KirlinJohn. 1975. Electoral conflict and democracy in cities. Journal of Politics37:262–69.
38.
LaxJeffreyPhillipsJustin. 2009. Gay rights in the states: Public opinion and policy responsiveness. American Political Science Review103(3):367–386.
39.
LewisPaulMaxNeiman. (2009). Custodians of place: Governing the growth and development of cities. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
40.
LineberryRobert. 1977. Equality and urban policy. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
41.
LineberryRobertFowlerEdmund. 1967. Reforms and public policies in American cities. American Political Science Review61:701–716.
42.
MaddalaG. S.1971. The use of variance components models in polling cross section and time series data. Econometrica39:341–58.
43.
MarcalLeahSvornyShirley. 2000. Support for municipal detachment: Evidence from a recent survey of Los Angeles voters. Urban Affairs Review36:93–103.
44.
MorganDavidPelisseroJohn. 1980. Urban policy: Does political structure matter?”The American Political Science Review74(4):999–1006.
45.
NerloveMarc. 1971. Further evidence on the estimation of dynamic economic relations from a time series of cross sections. Econometrica39:359–82.
46.
NorthropAlanaDuttonWilliam. 1978. Municipal reform and group influence. American Journal of Political Science22(3):691–711.
47.
OliverJ. Eric. 2001. Democracy in suburbia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
48.
OliverEricHaShang. 2007. Vote choice in suburban elections. American Political Science Review101(3):393–408.
49.
PaganoMichaelAnnO’M. Bowman. 1995. Cityscapes and capital: The politics of urban development. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
50.
PelisseroJohnKrebsTimothy. 1997. City council legislative committees and policy-making in large United States cities. American Journal of Political Science41(2):499–518.
51.
PercivalGarrickJohnsonMartinNeimanMax. 2009. Representation and local policy: Relating ideology to county-level policy adoption. Political Research Quarterly61(1):164–177.
52.
PetersonPaul. 1981. City limits. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
53.
PrewittKennethEulauHeinz. 1969. Political matrix and political representation: Prolegomenon to a new departure from an old problem. American Political Science Review63:427–41.
54.
RahnWendyRudolphThomas J.2005. A tale of trust in American cities. Public Opinion Quarterly69(4):530–560.
55.
RahnWendy M.KwangSuk YoonMichaelGaretLipsonStephenLoflinKatherine. 2003. Geographies of trust: Explaining inter-community variation in general social trust using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM).Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Association of Public Opinion Research, Nashville, Tennessee, May16.
56.
SapotichneJoshuaJonesBryan D.WolfeMichelle. 2007. Is urban politics a black hole? Analyzing the boundary between political science and urban politics. Urban Affairs Review43(1):76–106.
57.
SchneiderMark. 1989. The competitive city: The political economy of suburbia. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
58.
SchumakerPaul D.GetterRussell W.1977. Responsiveness bias in 51 American communities. American Journal of Political Science21:247–81.
59.
SharpElaine. 1991. Institutional manifestations of accessibility and urban economic development polity. The Western Political Quarterly44(1):129–147.
60.
SharpElaine B., ed. 1999. Culture wars and local politics. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
61.
SharpElaine B.2002. Culture, institutions, and urban officials' responses to morality issues. Political Research Quarterly55:861–83.
62.
SharpElaine B.StevenMaynard-Moody. 1991. Theories of the local welfare role. American Journal of Political Science35:934–50.
63.
SteinRobertPostStephanie ShirleyRiedenAllison L.2000. Reconciling context and contact effects on racial attitudes. Political Research Quarterly53:285–303.
64.
StimsonJames A.MacKuenMichael B.EriksonRobert S.1995. Dynamic representation. American Political Science Review89:543–65.
