Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: The Proximate Polity: Exit, Space, and Networks in Local Development Politics

本项目考察了美国城市决策者在制定经济发展政策时所面临的经济和政治背景。以前的许多研究都是根据单一地方管辖的经济和政治特征来调查地方决策的。本项目以这些努力为基础，研究其他司法管辖区的属性如何影响政策行为。人们有能力改变他们居住的地方、工作的地方、花钱的地方和投票的地方。这种地域流动性的潜力对城市采取何种政策以及如何与其他司法管辖区互动具有重要意义。本文的重点是空间和网络背景所带来的机遇和制约因素：其他邻近司法管辖区的政策和人口特征以及地方官员之间的社会信息联系。研究人员提出了三个关于城市空间和网络属性如何影响地方发展政策的问题：(1)城市官员如何确定他们的发展竞争对手和发展伙伴是谁？(2)相邻辖区的政策选择和经济状况如何影响城市投入发展的财政资源量？(3)经济竞争和区际关系如何影响合作发展政策？这些理论都是从经济发展政策并非没有风险这一观点出发的。发展的短期成本（例如交通、噪音、环境干扰）如果不能实现长期利益（例如就业、财产价值增加、工资增加），可能导致预算和政治后果。地理环境和网络信号应该有助于官员评估实现长期利益的可能性。简而言之，当地政策制定者的谨慎应该促使他们利用附近司法管辖区的政策和人口特征来帮助他们做出自己的选择。该项目采用多种方法来探索这些问题并测试假设。研究人员使用了统计模型，结合了地理属性、社会网络分析和对政策制定者的采访。到目前为止，完成的工作为论文坚持理论的期望，但已被限制在丹佛大都市区。国家科学基金会的资助使研究者对市长和城市管理者的调查扩大到更多的大都市地区成为可能，并且还支持进行基于访谈的案例研究。扩大后的调查允许收集现有资源中无法获得的数据，例如所研究的每个城市所执行的政策信息、受访者对如何做出政策决定的评估、他们对与政策相关的经济和政治风险的看法，以及与其他城市决策者的正式和非正式关系的信息。该项目做出了几项更广泛的贡献。它揭示了地方官员在经济不确定时期应对发展挑战时所面临的复杂制约。联邦和州议员以及选民向地方官员提出要求，期望政策调整能带来一系列具体的结果。这项研究表明，地方官员的算计要微妙得多。政策预期需要考虑到更广泛的大都市政策环境和官员之间的跨管辖区联系。

This project examines the economic and political context that policymakers in US cities face when formulating economic development policy. Much previous research has investigated local decision-making based on the economic and political characteristics of the single local jurisdiction. This project builds on these efforts by examining how the attributes of other jurisdictions influence policy behavior. People have the power to change where they live, where they work, where they spend their money, and where they vote. This potential for geographic mobility has important implications for which policies cities pursue as well as how they interact with other jurisdictions. The dissertation focuses on the opportunities and constraints presented by spatial and network contexts: the policy and demographic characteristics of other nearby jurisdictions and the social-informational connections between local officials.The researcher asks three questions about how the spatial and network attributes of cities influence local development policy: (1) How do city officials determine who their development competitors and development partners are? (2) How do the policy choices and economies of jurisdictional neighbors influence the amount of fiscal resources cities put toward development? (3) How do economic competition and inter-jurisdictional relationships influence cooperative development policy? The theories tested start from the idea that economic development policy is not risk-free. The short-term costs of development (e.g. traffic, noise, environmental disturbance) can lead to budgetary and political consequences if long-term benefits (e.g. jobs, increased property values, increased wages) are not realized. Geographic context and network signals should help officials make assessments about the likelihood that long-term benefits will be realized. In a nutshell, the caution of local policy-makers should lead them to use the policies and population characteristics of nearby jurisdictions to help them make their own choices.The project takes a multi-method approach to exploring these questions and testing hypotheses. The researcher uses statistical models incorporating geographic attributes, social-network analyses, and interviews with policy makers. The work completed so far for the dissertation upholds theoretical expectations, but has been restricted to the Denver Metropolitan Area. NSF funding makes possible expansion of the researcher's survey of mayors and city managers to additional metropolitan areas, and also supports the conduct of interview-based case studies. The expanded survey permits the collection of data not available in existing resources, such as information on policies pursued in each city studied, respondents' assessments of how policy decisions were made, their perceptions of economic and political risk associated with policies, and information on the formal and informal relationships with policy-makers in other cities.The project makes several broader contributions. It sheds light on the complex constraints that local officials face as they take on development challenges in economically uncertain times. Federal and state lawmakers, along with constituents, place demands on local officials with the expectation that policy adjustments will lead to a specific set of outcomes. This research suggests that the calculus of local officials is much more nuanced. Policy expectations need to account for the broader metropolitan policy environment and inter-jurisdictional connections officials have with one another.