PRAGMATIC MUNICIPALISM: LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICE DELIVERY AFTER THE GREAT RECESSION
基于2012年美国全国调查，研究大衰退后地方政府如何在财政压力下通过替代收入来源和私有化、合作等方式维持服务，发现并未转向全面紧缩，而是采取务实策略。
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.