Local Interests

"Although police behavior and the cost of housing are debated nationally, much of the policymaking on these issues takes place, not at the national level, but in local governments. The role of the federal government in managing the thousands of local police departments is very limited. On housing, the absence of affordable housing is largely the result of zoning laws and development decisions made at the local level. In Local Interests: Interest Groups and Public Policy in U.S. City Government, Sarah Anzia explores local governments and the interest groups that lobby them on important issues, with a focus on police and economic development and housing, areas that are critical in local politics. In doing so, Anzia not only offers a different perspective on these critical issues, for example demonstrating why reforms in policing practices supported by progressive often are stymied, and why efforts to increase density and create more houses fail. Anzia also contributes to our knowledge about how interest groups function generally and giving us an important perspective on the too-often stepchild of political science, local politics"--