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Decentralizing City Government

The Citizen Survey as a Guide for Planning and Implementing Institutional Change

Columbia University

Nathalie Friedman

Columbia University

Citizen evaluations of two alternative forms of decentralizing city government- administrative and political-are analyzed from the perspective of the respondents' ethnicity, the socioeconomic composition of their neighborhoods, and their ap praisal of the delivery of essential city services. Data were collected in 1974 from a sample of 1,288 residents in selected Community Planning Districts m New York City. While the literature suggests that blacks are particularly receptive to decentral izing city government, the data reported here show that whites are more likely than blacks to endorse both administrative and political decentralization. The strongest commitment to decentralization comes from residents most dissatisfied with current service delivery and from a small but politically active segment of the public. Citizen feedback can serve as an integral component in the evaluation of service effectiveness and as an important mechanism m the search for alternative social change strategies directed to improving the quality of urban life.

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