Distributive Politics, Inequality, and Representation in Urban Politics

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel broadly asks: who gets what and whose interests are represented in U.S. local politics? Incorporating research on distributive politics, representation, and preferences over redistribution, the papers in this panel bring new data to bear on classic questions. Hamel and Payson study the allocation of Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs) at the precinct level in Chicago and Los Angeles and explore how electoral dynamics shape community investment. Glick and Palmer offer data from a novel survey experiment to understand public preferences over redistribution by urban residents. Butler, Dynes, and Torres document the conditions under which municipal expenditure policies reflect citizen ideological preferences. And Payson shows how existing spatial inequalities in community capacity shape the distribution of discretionary city council funding. Together, these papers extend the rich urban politics literature on themes of distribution and inequality and offer new insights with cutting-edge empirical approaches.

Sub Unit

• Division 30: Urban Politics

Individual Presentations

• The Politics of Community Development Block Grants - Brian T. Hamel, University of North Texas; Julia Payson, UCLA

• Public Perceptions of Fairness in the Allocation of Resources - David Glick, Boston University; Maxwell B. Palmer, Boston University

• Does Constituent Partisanship Predict Municipal Spending and Taxation? - Adam Michael Dynes, Brigham Young University; Dan Butler, Washington University in St. Louis; Michelle Torres, UCLA

• How Local Capacity Shapes Urban Distributive Politics - Julia Payson, UCLA

Chair

• Margaret Weir Brown University

Discussants

• Michael J. Rich Emory University

• Sarah E. Reckhow Michigan State University