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

这篇论文的研究支持项目是问，将公共职能孤立在一个专门的政策舞台上是否会影响政治行为者的战略和激励，并影响政策结果。看着美国地方治理中特殊区域的激增，这位博士生辩称，竞技场的规范和多元化产生了决策机构的分层，开发商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使用选举和游说策略来占领专门的场所。然后，他们就有动力去选址、购物，并将多维纠纷转移到能够做出更有利决定的竞技场上。对更广泛的公共利益感兴趣的团体将遵循一种投资战略，将资源集中在监控和信息成本较低的通用场所，它们可以参与多个问题。随着更多的政策问题在特殊的地区场所得到解决，集中的利益将战胜分散的公共目标。利益攸关方对特别地区的占领应影响服务提供的分布模式和大都市发展的长期模式。本文以水区为研究对象，对地方政府结构的政策后果假设进行了检验。它解决了三个实证研究问题：第一，与提供水服务的市县相比，水区是否做出了不同的政策选择，其利益不同？第二，土地使用纠纷在多大程度上转移到了水域场地，争议的性质和政策结果与一般用途的政府场地有何不同？第三，随着时间的推移，水区治理对大都市区的增长和发展会产生什么后果？学生在回答这些问题时运用了多种方法。使用美国环境保护局和美国水务协会的数据集，该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偏爱不同的用户群体，并比市政自来水供应商优先考虑不同的目标。学生还将在四个大都市地区进行以访谈为基础的案例研究，以考察在政府间合作和批准新开发项目的争议中，管理水资源的制度安排对政策制定的性质和内容的影响。最后，将使用空间时间序列统计技术来检查相同大都市地区的发展速度和模式。本文的实证结果通过论证水资源供应与土地利用之间的联系，以及解释采取保护和增长控制措施，对社会具有更广泛的好处。

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.