Power structures, policy insurgencies and local public budgets

An analysis of the existence and contestability of business-oriented power structures in American communities is presented in this dissertation. The analysis is of interest to advocates developing policy proposals and strategies for labor and community-interest groups. The analysis is also of interest to policy analysts who must understand the sources of existing policy parameters to evaluate the political feasibility of proposals.;The literature reviewed for the project is divided into two general paradigms---class-analytic and neoclassical (with particular emphasis on its public choice variant). Work in these paradigms generates four hypotheses about the existence and contestability of business-led local power structures. Focus is placed on local public budgetary policy as indicative of general policy frameworks.;A model depicting the policy process as a market for local budgetary policy outcomes is developed capable of representing all four hypotheses. Interpretation of the results, complicated by multicollinearity and construct validity problems, yields the tentative conclusions that business-oriented power structures may exist with interests contrary to the voting public, and that voters can mitigate the budgetary policies adopted by such power structures.