Power, politics, and participation: the impact of municipal takeover on local democracy

This research focused on the ways in which municipal takeovers reshape local democracy, not only by suspending representative government, but disrupting the existing order and creating opportunities and incentives that shift power in the local political system. The primary question that guided this research was: how, through its implementation, does municipal takeover policy reshape local democracy? Drawing from a constructivist-institutionalist framework, I found that the tools and strategies designed by the state to fix a local government’s fiscal health have both instrumental and symbolic effects, which restructured who, and by what means residents, groups, and organizations, participated politically. To answer the question about how municipal takeover policy reshapes local democracy and to identify the causal mechanisms that explain how municipal takeover can alter the local political system, this project utilized a policy-centered case study of Flint, Michigan, a city most recently in the news for lead contamination in its water. Michigan has one of the most aggressive policies for addressing local fiscal crises in the United States; state law effectively suspends the governing authority of local elected officials and puts in place state-appointed Emergency Managers. My analysis drew on documentary evidence from state and local government, news media, and Flint-focused urban histories; fieldwork conducted during the summer of 2015, at which time I interacted with many residents and local stakeholders; and 35 semi-structured interviews. Information gleaned from the data was analyzed using both interpretive and process tracing tools. This study shows that municipal takeover policy had a significant impact on local democracy in Flint. I found that the policy, when implemented, disparately impacted members of the community: benefiting some, while burdening others. How residents made meaning of takeovers was related to how they responded politically. As a result of changes in participatory access, allocation of resources, and their perception of the takeover, opponents of the policy created and utilized new pathways to power, undermining the inherent lack of democratic participation provided under takeovers and ameliorating the symbolic effects of the perceived threat to democracy.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Ashley Elizabeth Nickel