Analyses of local government contracting increasingly focus on understanding how the transaction costs created by service attributes limit opportunities for external service production. However, the institutional collective action framework suggests that networks among local government actors help to offset these costs for intergovernmental contracting decisions. We use data describing service production arrangements of cities in Michigan to examine the proposition that service production decisions are conditioned by the communication networks created through institutional linkages in addition to the transaction characteristics of services. We examine three different production options: (1) internal production, (2) joint or complete contracting with another government, and (3) production by a private or nonprofit organization, and find strong support for the expected role of transaction costs in these production choices. We also find that some types of networks created by institutions increase the likelihood that local governments will rely on intergovernmental service arrangements.

In recent years, analysts have begun to study cooperation on public services among local governments. These studies often have concluded that services with scale economies are likely candidates for shared service delivery. This article contributes to the emerging literature on this topic by examining interlocal service arrangements for 10 public works services in Michigan. Despite the fact that public works exhibit substantial scale economies, many local governments do not cooperate on these services. Empirical studies of local government contracting suggest four groups of factors that may help explain why local governments opt to collaborate on public services: local economic factors, characteristics of the communities in areas adjacent to the local government, demographic characteristics of the local government, and the influence of policy and planning networks. The authors use data on the service delivery arrangements from 468 general-purpose local governments in Michigan to examine the role played by the factors in explaining interlocal cooperation on public works.

Editor's note: Th e International City/County Management Association (ICMA) celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2014. Th is is the fourth and fi nal article in a series over the past year about the council-manager plan to commemorate ICMA's 100th anniversary. JLP Abstract: Th e 100th anniversary of the International City/County Management Association provides an excellent point to review and assess research on the performance of the council-manager form of government. Th e development of the council-manager form arguably has been the most important innovation in American local government over the last century, yet its impact on the performance of municipal governments is not well understood. Th is article reviews and assesses the empirical evidence for 10 propositions that council-manager governments perform better than mayorcouncil governments. Th is evidence indicates that although progress has been made on demonstrating diff erences in representation and functionality, the proposition that council-manager governments are better managed than mayorcouncil governments has yet to be seriously engaged in this literature. Filling this critical gap requires progress in two areas: the development of theory to explain why council-manager governments are better-managed organizations and the production of evidence assessing the major propositions of this theory.

The notion that local government autonomy has important implications for a state’s local government structure is fast approaching conventional wisdom. Negative binomial regression is used to analyze the link between the administrative, fiscal, functional, and structural autonomy permitted to municipal and county governments and the number of special districts in each state over the 1992-2002 period. This pooled analysis reveals that this relationship to befar more limited than previously thought. This study challenges the findings of previous studies showing that limitations on local autonomy strongly encourage a splintering of local government authority due to the creation of numerous special districts. Tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) were the only restrictions that were consistently related to a greater reliance on special district governments, and only when both municipal and county governments were both strongly restricted. For the most part, state reliance on special district governments was unaffected by the extent of restrictions placed on local general-purpose governments with regard to debt and permitted functions.

What do exemplary qualitative accounts look like, and how do they convince readers of their correctness? What sort of standards can be used to assess qualitative research accounts for public administration? To address these questions, the authors examined 72 recent qualitative research journal articles. Proceeding from a set of preliminary guidelines, they worked iteratively between articles and the emergent template to produce refined guidelines. In addition, they identified specific types of dilemmas for public bureaucracies and policies that trigger researchers’ strategies for persuading readers that their qualitative accounts are credible. They conclude with four actionable recommendations for improving the field’s qualitative research.