How Hollow is the Prize? Minority Mayors and State Government Intervention in Municipal Finance

Abstract

With the election of Mayor Carl Stokes (Cleveland, Ohio) and Mayor Richard Hatcher (Gary, Indiana) during the late-1960s, scholars were given the opportunity to examine the effect of minority political incorporation on local policy. Studies have consistently shown that the benefits of increased minority political empowerment were substantial, but most minority mayors experience considerable difficulties in garnering enough resources to support a policy agenda that favors the interests of their minority voters. The political and policy activities of most minority mayors are constrained by the social, economic, and political context of local governance. Increased levels of descriptive representation of racial minorities have been achieved, yet the ability of these leaders to provide considerable substantive representation remains a challenge. Following the “hollow-prize” rhetoric, many cities with minority mayors continue to struggle with weak local economic performance. In the last five years, higher levels of municipal fiscal distress across the nation have many state governments concerned. Nineteen state governments are authorized by state legislation to seize control over the finances of local governments experiencing severe budgetary troubles. While attempting to improve the solvency of local governments, state intervention programs transfer of power from locally elected officials to state-appointed financial managers and agencies. If cities led by minority mayors have higher levels of fiscal distress, their likelihood of being “taken over” may also be higher. Are minority mayors more likely to endure a state intervention?

The socio-economic complexities that minority mayors tend to face may, essentially, threaten minority political representation. State intervention programs present minority mayors with another institutional barrier. Their decreased executive and legislative authority would further hinder minority mayor’s capacity to address the policy needs of their constituents. Also, racial minorities are underrepresented amongst the various financial managers, agencies, boards and commissions that have been appointed by state government. Minority voters could potentially be supporting minority officials who have little to no control over policy-making while those responsible for decision-making do not represent their interests and are not accountable to the voters. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which the outcomes of representational politics are ignored in instances of state intervention in minority mayor cities. In other words, do the municipal financial reform policies reflect the policy interests of minority groups? A large-N dataset using the 2010 U.S. Census, municipal financial reports, annual budgets, and state oversight reports will be analyzed. State intervention programs in minority mayor and non-minority mayor cities will be examined as well as those programs in cities with considerably large minority populations.