Citizen Participation and the Neighborhood Context: A New Look at the Coproduction of Local Public Goods

Abstract

In this article I examine citizen participation in the realm of local service delivery, addressing two fundamental questions. First, in what ways do individual- and neighborhood-level factors shape citizens’ perceptions of crime and education as serious problems? Second, what leads individuals to get involved in activities and organizations related to these two local public services? I examine these question by merging two distinct strands of research—the theory of coproduction and studies of political participation—and conduct an empirical analysis using survey data from the 1989 Detroit Area Study (Rosenstone 1989) and tract-level data from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing. My findings underscore the importance of formal recruitment, neighborhood context, and incentives in understanding why individuals participate in local efforts to improve schools and mitigate crime.