Cities in Crisis: How the Bureaucratic Politics of Public Health and Safety Shape the American Experience

Abstract

Across the United States, citizens are directly impacted each day by the policies and programs adopted by local governments. Municipal governance in the United States is conducted by elected and administrative officials, who conduct themselves similarly to officials at other levels of government. Developing and utilizing an adapted theoretical framework based on the theories of bureaucratic politics, social construction, and policy feedback, this project asks: how do municipal bureaucrats and local politicians respond to crises of public health and safety in their jurisdictions, and to what extent do those responses mitigate or exacerbate the crises in question? Using data collected from observations, interviews, and publicly available city council meeting minutes, this study delineates the steps taken to adapt an established theoretical framework through rigorous qualitative inquiry including content analysis, mini-ethnography, and stories for research. Further, formal propositions concerning the anticipated priorities, values, and actions of local bureaucrats and politicians are proposed, and specific conclusions are presented that demonstrate the validity of those propositions. Finally, a larger research agenda is proposed, focused on refining and exploring the adapted theoretical framework through case studies, as well as qualitative and quantitative analyses.