A scientific method of measuring the effectiveness of local government

Published in 1975

A major problem.facing the political process in a community is accurately determining the preferences of citizens concerning how much money they would like local government to spend and given that quantity as a budgetary constraint, what percentage of that amount should be allocated to each category of public provided goods and services. Empirical studies of the demand for goods and services provided by collective decisions have generally examined the relationship between jurisdictional expenditures and various socioeconomic aspects of the constituent population. Typically, these studies depend on a simple concept of political equilibrium in which the actions of a political jurisdiction reflect the preferences of the median voter, by estimating demand functions based on voting data. These empirical studies are greatly handicapped by the problems involved in obtaining voting records. Additionally, little may be revealed about individual preferences by suggested demand functions based on voting records. Finally, these studies are concerned with a single category of public spending emphasizing the: private vs, public decision. An operational procedure (a bidding game) will be developed to determine preferences of citizens for publicly provided goods and services. This operational procedure was employed in a survey. The data thus obtained is statistically analyzed.

AZU_TD_BOX58_E9791_1976_64 (1).pdf (1.71 MB)

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