Friends and Competitors: Policy Interactions between Local Governments in Metropolitan Areas

Abstract

This article explores intergovernmental policy interactions between cen tral city, county, and suburban city governments in 186 metropolitan ar eas. Two hypotheses are developed to test the existence and shape of intergovernmental policy interactions between these governments. A com petition hypothesis, based on Tiebout's 1956 concept of interjurisdictional competition, posits that counties and cities compete in the developmen tal policy area by matching what other cities and counties do. A coopera tion hypothesis, based on the notion of the functional arrangements between local governments, posits that counties and cities cooperate in the public safety and education policy areas by supplementing others' policies or by substituting their policies with others' policies. The results of an analysis of local government expenditures indicate that local gov ernments compete as well as cooperate at the intergovernmental level and that intergovernmental policy competition is weaker than interjuris dictional policy competition. The article ends with a series of discussions on possible changes in the current local government system to mitigate the competition between cities and their counties.