PRAGMATIC MUNICIPALISM: LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICE DELIVERY AFTER THE GREAT RECESSION

Abstract

Since the Great Recession, some have argued that local governments have become ‘austerity machines’ that cut and privatize services and undermine unions. We conducted a national survey of US municipalities in 2012 to examine how service provision level and delivery methods are related to local stress and capacity, controlling for community need and place characteristics. We find that local governments are balancing the pressures of stress with community needs. They use alternative revenue sources and service delivery methods (privatization and cooperation) to maintain services. Unionization is not a barrier to innovation. Further, we find that ethnically diverse suburbs are providing more services than other suburbs, thus acting more like metro core cities. We find that the Great Recession has not dramatically shifted local government behaviour to a ‘new normal’ of fiscal austerity. Instead, we find municipalities practising ‘pragmatic municipalism’ to maintain their public role.