Response to J. Eric Oliver's review ofDoes Local Government Matter? How Urban Policies Shape Civic Engagement

Extract

One thing our books and mutual reviews show that we very much agree on is the challenge in the study of local politics of adapting data collected for other purposes to the testing of theories of interest. We also clearly agree that local government does matter—that is, that what it does affects the shape and character of local civic engagement. But it is not clear that we see the relevance of policy feedback theory for local government in the same way. Specifically, while J. Eric Oliver's review reveals an appreciation of the ways in which local government action may yield resource effects, the interpretive effects that are arguably the more innovative component of policy feedback theory may be underappreciated. It is likely that this difference links to a deeper, underlying difference in views on what it means for local government to matter.