The Determinants of City Government Form in the Southern United States and its Impact on Public Policies

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and the form of city government, and the relationship between the type of city government and fiscal and financial policies in the United States. This paper premises that political structure is a reflection of social choice and, at the same time, it is autonomous and coherent engugh to affect what societal members will get. I argue that a political structure be treated as the focal point in the political process. The twogocernment forms (mayor and manager form of city government) are compared to examine the choice of institutional form of city government and to determine whether and how the king of government makes differences. A prediction model is formulated to aid the purpose of the study. © 1999, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. All rights reserved.