All Politics Is Local and Local Politics Is Bipartisan

New research from Fernando Ferreira and Joseph Gyourko of Wharton reveals that the partisan bickering of national and state politics doesn't appear to trickle down to the level of the city.

Collecting information on some 4,500 mayoral elections between 1968 and 2004 in over 400 cities with populations of at least 25,000, the two researchers found that local policy initiatives were not affected by the party that won the election.

Things like the size of government, public spending on police and firefighters, and property and violent crime rates were not influenced by whether a Democrat or Republican won the election. The researchers didn't, however, test for some other important functions of local governments including spending on schools, zoning laws, and ability to attract residents and businesses.

But the results are still remarkable given the common impression that the party affiliation of an elected official plays a large role in determining fiscal policy.

Ferreira and Gyourko believe the reason for their surprising finding is that there is no viable way for a state or national party leader to force a mayor to act in the interest of the party, thus, the mayor has to be attuned to what the typical voter in his city wants, or risk losing the next election.