Sources of resistance to defining community as a larger public goods problem

The sources of resistance to defining community challenges as larger public goods problems are discussed. While recognizing the historic role of economic interests as a source of resistance to dealing with community sustainability issues, and in many cases encouraging inter-community conflict, other sources of resistance have been given less attention in the literature. This includes the social network structures of some communities that are resistant to new information, especially that coming from “outsiders,†as well as the inherent human psychological process of “dissonance.†Most important in the case of the community public goods issues in the United States are the unintended consequence for reforms. These include the increased use of the referendum, the elimination of “earmarks†in Congress and term limits in state legislatures that reduce the capacity of local communities to gain input into the political process, but instead encourage “winner-take-all†polarization.