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- Title
Abandonments of the Council-Manager Plan: A New Institutionalist Perspective.
- Authors
Protasel, Greg J.
- Abstract
This article reconceptualizes the way abandonments of the council-manager form of local government have come to be portrayed. As in most contemporary theories of politics, abandonments have been depicted as reflections of social dimensions of politics, particularly those associated with large cities in a popular political development model. This research shows, however, that size is now a better indicator of nonabandonments of the council-manager plan. An institutionalist perspective is offered as a more accurate explanation of abandonments. The community leadership gap that sometimes exists in the traditional council-manager plan and which city managers may fill at considerable institutional peril is more often encountered in smaller cities than in large ones. Changes in the council-manager form of government, most particularly adoption of direct election of the mayor, have been made most conspicuously in larger cities, reducing pressures for abandonments.
- Subjects
UNITED States; LOCAL government; CITY managers; POLITICAL sociology; CITY councils; POLITICAL development; CITIES &; towns; THEORY; POLITICAL science; ELECTIONS
- Publication
Public Administration Review, 1988, Vol 48, Issue 4, p807
- ISSN
0033-3352
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/975605