Description: Local governments play a central role in American democracy, providing essential services such as policing, water, and sanitation. Moreover, Americans express great confidence in their municipal governments. But is this confidence warranted? Using big data and a representative sample of American communities, this book provides the first systematic examination of racial and class inequalities in local politics. We find that non-whites and less-affluent residents are consistent losers in local democracy. Residents of color and those with lower incomes receive less representation from local elected officials than do whites and the affluent. Additionally, they are much less likely than privileged community members to have their preferences reflected in local government policy. Contrary to the popular assumption that governments that are "closest" govern best, we find that inequalities in representation are most severe in suburbs and small towns. Typical reforms do not seem to improve the situation, and we recommend new approaches.
Brief description: Brian F. Schaffner is the Newhouse Professor of Civic Studies at Tufts University. He is co-author Campaign Finance and Political Polarization: When Purists Prevail, which was the winner of the 2016 Virginia Gray Best Book Award. He is also co-editor of Winning with Words: The Origins & Impact of Political Framing and co-author of Understanding Political Science Research Methods: The Challenge of Inference. His research has appeared in more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and has received over $2 million in external grant funding.
Review Quotes: 'Citizens in the United States elect hundreds of thousands of local officials across nearly 90,000 local governments. Hometown Inequality seeks to understand how well these officials represent their constituents and whether they represent economic and racial groups differently. To do this, Schaffner, Rhodes, and La Raja combine data from a staggering 260 million adults with ideological and policy data from over a thousand towns and cities. The result is a highly innovative and engaging book that will greatly advance the conversation about representation in the US.' Peter K. Enns, Department of Government, Cornell University