Governmental Fragmentation versus Consolidation: Five Public-Choice Myths about How to Create Informed, Involved, and Happy Citizens

Abstract

This article concernsfive of the key individual level propositions found in the public-choice model as it has been applied to the governing of metropolitan areas. The findings of this study are based on surveys of respondents living in five matched pairs of spatially defined areas or communities located in two metropolitan areas, one of which is characterized by high levels of governmental fragmentation while the other operates under a consolidated form of government. Contrary to expectations based on the public-choice model, citizens living in smaller local jurisdictions located in the more fragmented system were not better informed about the scope and nature of their local tax-service package; they were not more efficacious about their relationships with their local government; they were not more likely to participate in local affairs; and they were not more satisfied with their local services and the performance of their local governments than their counterparts living in the consolidated setting. Nor did the evidence support the public-choice contention that satisfaction with local services is more widely dispersed across