Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Functional Specialization in Local Government: The Politics of Water Districts

本论文研究支持项目的问题是否孤立的公共职能在一个专门的政策竞技场影响的战略和激励的政治行为者和影响政策的结果。 在美国地方治理中，特别行政区的扩散，博士。学生们认为，竞技场规范和倍增产生了决策机构的分层，开发人员和其他感兴趣的利益相关者在这种分层系统中享有程序优势。 在政策结果中拥有集中利益的团体将利用选举和游说策略来占领专门的场所。 然后，他们有动力去选择场地，并将多维度的争议转移到能够做出更有利决定的领域。 对更广泛的公共利益感兴趣的团体将遵循一种投资战略，将其资源集中在监测和信息成本较低的通用场所，他们可以参与多个问题。 随着更多的政策问题在特别的地区场所得到解决，集中的利益将战胜分散的公共目标。 利益攸关方对特殊地区的控制应影响服务提供的分布模式和大都市发展的长期模式。 本论文特别侧重于水区在检验假设的政策后果的地方政府结构。 它解决了三个实证研究问题：第一，水区作出不同的政策选择，不同的利益，比城市和县提供水服务？ 第二，土地使用纠纷在多大程度上转移到水域场地，争议的性质和政策结果是否与一般用途的政府场地不同？ 第三，随着时间的推移，水域治理对大都市区的增长和发展有什么影响？ 学生运用多种方法回答这些问题。 利用美国环境保护署和美国水务协会的数据集，学生对水务公司的收入和支出政策进行统计分析，以测试特殊地区是否系统地支持不同的用户群体，并优先考虑不同的目标。 学生还将在四个大都市地区进行基于访谈的案例研究，以研究管理水资源的制度安排对政府间合作和批准新发展争端中政策制定的性质和内容的影响。 最后，将利用空间时间序列统计技术来审查同一大都市地区的发展速度和模式。本论文的实证结果通过论证供水与土地利用之间的联系，解释了保护和增长控制措施的采用，对社会产生了更广泛的效益。

This dissertation research support project asks whether isolating a public function within a specialized policy arena affects the strategies and incentives of political actors and influences policy outcomes. Looking at the proliferation of special districts in American local governance, the Ph.D. student argues that arena specification and multiplication produce a layering of decision-making institutions, and that developers and other interested stakeholders enjoy a procedural advantage in this kind of layered system. Groups with a concentrated stake in policy outcomes will use electoral and lobbying strategies to capture specialized venues. They then have an incentive to venue shop and shift multidimensional disputes into the arenas that will deliver more favorable decisions. Groups interested in more diffuse public benefits will follow an investment strategy that focuses their resources on general purpose venues where monitoring and information costs are lower and they can participate in multiple issues. As more policy issues are resolved in special district venues, concentrated benefits will win out over diffuse public aims. The capture of special districts by interested stakeholders should affect distributional patterns in service provision and long-term patterns of metropolitan development. The dissertation focuses specifically on water districts in testing hypotheses about the policy consequences of local government structure. It addresses three empirical research questions: First, do water districts make different policy choices, with benefits for different interests, than cities and counties that provide water service? Second, to what extent have land use disputes shifted into water district venues, and do the character of controversy and the policy outcomes differ from those in general purpose government venues? Third, what are the consequences of water district governance for the growth and development of metropolitan areas over time? The student applies multiple methods in answering these questions. Using datasets from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the American Water Works Association, the student undertakes statistical analyses of the revenue and expenditure policies of water utilities to test whether special districts systematically favor different user groups and prioritize different objectives than municipal water suppliers. The student also will conduct interview-based case studies in four metropolitan areas to examine the effects of institutional arrangements governing water on the character and content of policy making in disputes over intergovernmental cooperation and approval of new evelopment. Finally, spatial time-series statistical techniques will be used to examine the rates and patterns of development in the same metropolitan areas. The dissertation's empirical results have broader benefits to society by demonstrating the linkage between water provision and land use and explaining the adoption of conservation and growth control measures.