The Assumptive World of Local Political Elites

Abstract

Mayors' behavior is a reflection not only of constituent preferences but also of their own beliefs, values, and perceptions-their assumptive worlds. The authors analyze the responses of Detroit-area mayors to questions about their orientation to the local citizenry, perception of the most important role(s) of local government, task role(s), representative role, and perception of their power relative to other actors in the local political system. Using factor analysis, the authors identify three latent cognitive orientations to characterize the mayors' assumptive worlds-(1) citizen-participation dominated, (2) mayoral-valence concerned, and (3) voter apprehensive. They find that structural attributes (forms of local government) and population size are strongly related to the mayoral-valence-concerned and voter-apprehensive assumptive worlds, whereas personal (gender) and political (partisanship) characteristics may be related only to voter apprehensiveness.