Typologies of local government decision making behavior

Abstract

The use of case studies in local government research is viewed with mixed emotions by political scientists. They readily admit that case studies often provide refreshing, thought provoking insights about real people making real decisions. However, political scientists also point out that case studies are not additive. Each study remains a unique statement of a behavioral event as subjectively interpreted by the researcher. This paper contends that case studies can be made additive by using new research tools to analyze how decision makers perceive themselves, community issues and the outcomes of their actions. These tools consist of appreciative data gathering techniques and nonmetric multidimensional scaling and preference mapping. The results, while quantitative, are clearly consistent with policy typologies developed through traditional methods of case study research [1].