A Nearly Forgotten Classic Study in Public Administration: Edward C. Banfield's Government Project

Abstract

To summarize, Building the Local Economy: Cases in Economic Development will interest students, local officials, or anyone who seeks detailed descriptions of economic development initiatives from across the country. The individual chapters report interesting studies about the diverse organizational forms and strategies employed to advance local economic development. Readers interested in larger lessons about the causes and consequences of cooperation and competition in local economic development will be disappointed by the lack of integration across cases and the omission of a conclusion discussing the collective lessons of all 15 cases. To understand the value and limits of cooperation for local economic development, future volumes should develop a more rigorous comparative case framework.