Official Leadership in the City: Patterns of Conflict and Cooperation

The main argument of this book is that cooperation as well as conflict can be found in the local governmental process, and that structural features of a city, particularly the form of government by which it operates, tend to cause a city to follow one pattern or the other--conflict or cooperation. Svara puts forth a new and different segmentation of municipal decision-making, arguing that it occurs in four major dimensions mission, policy, administration, and management and then proceeds to analyze the responsibilities of elected officials and administrators for each of these dimensions. This book is a significant addition to the world of urban research. It would certainly be one of a small core of books that would be on my list whenever I offered a course in urban government, public administration, municipal management and similar areas.