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Local Politics and Decision-Making: a Hypothesis-Generating Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Allan Alexander
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Extract

In a recent article on the comparative method in the study of politics, 1 Arend Lijphart discusses the place of the case study and suggests that there are six types of case study, four of which may be characterized as theoretical, two as atheoretical. The first of the theoretical types is the hypothesis-generating case study. Of studies of this type, Lijphart says: ‘They start out with a more or less vague notion of possible hypotheses, and attempt to formulate definite hypotheses to be tested subsequently among a large number of cases.2 The study upon which this paper is based satisfies entirely the first part of this description in that it began with a ‘more or less vague notion of possible hypotheses’ and it is hoped that the more definite hypotheses which were generated will be worthy of the large-scale testing that will eventually lead to the construction of a general theory of non-partisan civic government in Canada.

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Notes and Comments
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British Journal of Political Science , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , January 1975 , pp. 112 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

1 Lijphart, Arend, ‘Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method’, American Political Science Review, LXV (1971), 682–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Lijphart, , ‘Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method’, p. 692.Google Scholar

3 See Arthur, Elizabeth, ‘The Landing and the Plot’, Lakehead University Review, I (1968), 1–17.Google Scholar

4 Alexander, Alan, ‘The Institutional and Role Perceptions of Local Aldermen’, paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the Canadian Political Science Association, Winnipeg, 1970.Google Scholar A slightly amended version of this paper will be found in Lakehead University Review, V (1972), 38–54Google Scholar, and in Feldman, L. D. and Goldrick, M. D., eds., Politics and Government of Urban Canada, 2nd edn. (Toronto: Methuen, 1972), 139–52.Google Scholar

5 See, for example, Budge, I. et al. , Political Stratification and Democracy (London: Macmillan, 1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Prewitt, K., The Recruitment of Political Leaders: A Study of Citizen-Politicians (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970)Google Scholar; Budge, I. and O'leary, C., Belfast: Approach to Crisis (London: Macmillan, 1972)Google Scholar; Prewitt, K. and Eulau, H., ‘Social Bias and Leadership Selection, Political Recruitment, and Electoral Context’, Journal of Politics, XXXIII (1971), 293–315CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Prewitt, K. and Nowlin, W., ‘Political Ambitions and the Behaviour of Incumbent Politicians’, Western Political Quarterly, XXII (1969), 298–308.Google Scholar

6 Budge et al., Political Stratification, esp. Chap. 3. The models considered are Burkean, microcosmic, geographical or areal, party responsible and stratification. The present paper does not consider the areal model because all elections in the Lakehead before amalgamation were city wide and not based on wards. The possibility of the existence of a stratification model is admitted, but the data do not permit the examination of it.

7 Pitkin, H. F., The Concept of Representation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), p. 168.Google Scholar

8 There is much evidence to suggest that such perceptions are unreliable as predictors of behaviour. See, for example, Budge et al., Political Stratification, and Budge and O'Leary, Belfast. See also the differences found in the effects of such perceptions in the discussion of Hypotheses II (a) and II (b), below.

9 See, for example, Sigel, R. S. and Friesema, H. P., ‘Urban Community Leaders’ Knowledge of Public Opinion’, Western Political Quarterly, XVIII (1965), 881–95.Google Scholar

10 For statistics on the social, educational and occupational composition of the electorate, I am indebted to Professor Ivor G. Davies, formerly of the Department of Geography, Lakehead University. The survey from which the figures are drawn was a 2 per cent systematic sample of households based upon a randomly selected starting point. The survey was conducted in the autumn of 1968.

11 See Milbrath, L., Political Participation (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1965)Google Scholar, esp. Chap. V.

12 See, for example, Belknap, G. and Smuckler, R., ‘Political Power Relations in a Mid-West City’, Public Opinion Quarterly, XX (1965), 72–81Google Scholar; Sharpe, L. J., ‘Elected Representatives in Local Government’ British Journal of Sociology, XIII (1962), 189–208CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stewart, F. A., ‘A Sociometric Study of Influence in Southtown’, Sociometry, X (1949), 11–31.Google Scholar

13 Prewitt, and Eulau, , ‘Social Bias’, 308–10Google Scholar, suggest that recruitment to non-partisan councils is not ‘haphazard’. However, the possibility that recruits come preponderantly from what they call the ‘auxiliary government’ (public bodies of various kinds) and ‘civic leadership’ (chamber of commerce, service clubs, etc.), though strong in the Lakehead case (see Hypothesis VI (a), below) surely reinforces the argument here.

14 Sigel and Friesema, ‘Urban Community Leaders’ Knowledge of Public opinion’.

15 Wildavsky, reports that in Oberlin the introduction of non-partisanship in city elections led to increased participation in elections and to an increased interest in and discussion of issues. Leadership in a Small Town (Totowa, N. J.: Bedminster Press, 1964), 49–51.Google Scholar It is likely, however, as Wildavsky acknowledges, that these effects were due in some measure to the fact that politics in Oberlin were not competitive between the parties, the Republicans beingdominant. The Lakehead case is wholly dissimilar in that competition is strong between the parties at both provincial and federal levels. Also, it might be argued that the introduction of party politics in the Lakehead case would have the same intentions (and effects) as the introduction of non-partisanship in Oberlin – to increase competition and focus more attention on the issues. Innovation may itself be a stimulus to changed behaviour, no matter the nature of the innovation.

16 Evidence from the United States, however, indicates that this remark may have been based more on knowledge of the council than of the electorate. Statistics in Crain, R. L. et al. , The Politics of Community Conflict (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1969)Google Scholar show that whereas the adoption rate for fluoridation in forty-eight states was 32.1 per cent, the success rate in referenda was 41 per cent.

17 Friedrich, C. J., Constitutional Government and Democracy (New York: Harper, 1937);Google ScholarDahl, R. A., Who Governs? (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961);Google ScholarPresthus, R. V., Men at the Top (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964);Google ScholarJennings, M. Kent, Community Influentials (Glencoe, III.: Free Press, 1964).Google Scholar See also, Gregory, Roy, ‘Local Elections and the “Rule of Anticipated Reactions” ‘, Political Studies, XVII (1968), 31–47.Google Scholar

18 See, Dahl, , Who Governs?, p. 101.Google Scholar

19 Burkean representation, in its purest form, excludes the possibility of the representation of any interests except those which are ‘impersonal’ and ‘unattached’ (see above, p. 114). Thus there is the possibility that the strong representation of the business community on the Port Arthur council constitutes a modification of the model by the superimposition upon it of the direct representation of a particular economic constituency.