Off-Cycle and Off Center: Election Timing and Representation in Municipal Government

Abstract

Who governs America’s cities: organized interests or mass publics? Though recent scholarship finds that local governments enact policies that align with citizens’ preferences, others argue that it is organized interests, not mass publics that are influential. To reconcile these perspectives, we show that election timing can help shed light on when voters or groups will be pivotal in city politics. Examining 1,600 large US cities, we find that off-cycle elections affect city policy responsiveness asymmetrically, weakening responsiveness on those issues where there is an active and organized interest whose policy objectives deviate from the preferences of the median resident. Here, we focus on public employees’ interests and find that local governments that are elected off cycle spend more on city workers than would be preferred by citizens in more conservative cities. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the study of interest groups and representation in local politics.

The aftermath of ballot box success and failure: evidence from land preservation referendums

“…Some issues may benefit from a larger population voting, whereas others may benefit from a smaller population voting depending on the nature of the ideology of the area, and the ideological distance between the PEs, the active opponents, and the median voter (e.g. Dynes et al 2021).…”

State Labor Laws and Government Responsiveness to Public Opinion

“…Insofar as the preferences of organized interests and those of the mass public do not always align, this framework can account for instances where policies diverge from majority preferences. For instance, research has found that income inequality, lowturnout off-cycle elections, and other factors can privilege organized interests (Anzia 2011(Anzia , 2013Dynes, Hartney, and Hayes 2021;Franko, Kelly, and Witko 2016;Hacker and Pierson 2010).…”

Reducing “Golongan Putih” Activities in General Elections Abstention by Strengthening Citizen Participation and Involvement in Public Management

“…Through empowerment, citizens are given the opportunity to contribute to formulating policies and implementing programs that are more in line with their needs and expectations. Community empowerment can be carried out through political education (Zavala & Henning, 2021), forming community groups (Dynes et al, 2021), and facilitating public participation (Arana-Catania et al, 2021) in various stages of the public policy process.…”