IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rrpaxx/v14y2009i1p51-66.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is Institutional Change in Forms of American Local Government Functional, Isomorphic, or Path Dependent?

Author

Listed:
  • Cheon Geun Choi
  • Bok-Tae Kim

Abstract

American cities are born, change, and, sometimes, disappear. What are the sources of institutional change? One conception of institutional change focuses on the functional process of social institutions. The other emphasizes the nonfunctional processes such as institutional isomorphism and path dependence. In this paper, we explore under what circumstances American cities change their form of government. The authors suggest seven hypotheses based upon functional and nonfunctional explanations, and test these hypotheses using the probit model with a decennial panel data set spanning 350 American cities from 1940 to 2000. Particularly, in order to test the hypothesis concerning institutional isomorphism, we measure the distance between cities using GIS techniques. Not surprisingly, all three explanations get empirical support from the study.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheon Geun Choi & Bok-Tae Kim, 2009. "Is Institutional Change in Forms of American Local Government Functional, Isomorphic, or Path Dependent?," International Review of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 51-66, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rrpaxx:v:14:y:2009:i:1:p:51-66
    DOI: 10.1080/12294659.2009.10805147
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/12294659.2009.10805147
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/12294659.2009.10805147?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary Miller, 1985. "Progressive reform as induced institutional preferences," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 163-181, January.
    2. Kessel, John H., 1962. "Governmental Structure and Political Environment: A Statistical Note about American Cities," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(3), pages 615-620, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhao, Jihong & Ren, Ling & Lovrich, Nicholas P., 2010. "Budgetary support for police services in U.S. municipalities: Comparing political culture, socioeconomic characteristics and incrementalism as rival explanations for budget share allocation to police," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 266-275, May.
    2. Mark Lubell & Richard C. Feiock & Edgar E. Ramirez De La Cruz, 2009. "Local Institutions and the Politics of Urban Growth," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(3), pages 649-665, July.
    3. Steven Maser, 1985. "Demographic factors affecting constitutional decisions: the case of municipal charters," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 121-162, January.
    4. Rachel Meltzer & Jenny Schuetz, 2010. "What drives the diffusion of inclusionary zoning?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 578-602.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rrpaxx:v:14:y:2009:i:1:p:51-66. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRPA20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.