Community Decision-Making Systems: Recruitment Culture and Political Responsiveness

In: American politics quarterly, Band 8, Heft 1, S. 61-84

Abstract

This study examines the proposition that an area's recruitment culture may be an im portant intervening factor between community characteristics and the policy attitudes of elected decision makers. The research departs from previous studies in that it attempts to look at partisanship and the recruitment of local officials as a cultural, rather than strictly legal, phenomenon. In analyzing both aggregate and survey data gathered in Wisconsin counties, it was found that, in spite of legal nonpartisanship, there was much variation among the counties in terms of partisan factors surrounding decisions to seek public office, and that variation in recruitment cultures seemed to be related in systematic ways to the collective policy preferences of county boards.