Community-Based Organizations, Community Control Ideology, and the Reconstruction of Policy Frameworks During Political Crises

• In Event: Local Politics and American Political Development

Abstract

This paper makes two claims about community-based organizations’ role in resolving urban political crises. I argue that CBOs help reconstitute normative foundations of policy-making during crises, by framing problems and community interests. Second, I argue that some CBOs’ interactions with federal and local policies have reinforced these CBOs’ commitment to “community control.” Thus, during crises, CBOs frame problems and community interests in terms of community control. This can marginalize demands for economic redistribution.

I examine a case study of CBOs’ role in the reconstruction of a normative framework for educational policy in Chicago, during a crisis of education policy between 2013 and 2015. CBOs helped establish community participation as the foundational principles for education policy-making. In the process, explicitly class-conscious frames and demands for redistribution of educational resources, introduced by a union-led coalition, were marginalized. Analyzing public debates, I show that militant CBOs helped establish this consensus through their consistent focus on “community control,” while moderate CBOs articulated community control in ways that were compatible with the agenda of the mayor.

I trace the history of these CBOs from their origins in the civil rights movement. While a commitment to community control was an organic product of ideas about self-empowerment, it was reinforced by federal and local policy which created opportunities for influence for organizations who articulated claims in terms of community control over local policy-making and economic development. Elite preferences for devolution of decision-making power, instead of economic redistribution, were transferred to CBOs in this way.

Author

• James Evans Morone, University of Pennsylvania