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The role of local political and administrative structures on citizen participation in the governance and decision-making processes of community-based housing organizations in the US is studied. Citizen participation in these groups in Buffalo, New York, is hampered by patronage politics and administrative responses.

Theories of civil society set high expectations for grassroots associations, claiming that they school citizens in democracy and constrain powerful institutions. But when do real-life organizations actually live up to this billing? Homeowner organizations in the United States and elsewhere have sparked debate among political scientists, criticized by some as nonparticipatory and harmful to the overall polity and defended by others as benign manifestations of local self-governance. With this as a backdrop, China's emerging homeowner groups are used as a testing ground for exploring variation in three criteria of performance: self-organization, participation, and the exercising of power. Comparisons are drawn cross-nationally, among 23 cases in four Chinese cities and over time within neighborhoods. The article puts forward several factors affecting the properties of grassroots groups, highlighting the role of conflict, the political--legal environment, and collective action problems in shaping the way they engage their members and take political action. Keywords: civil society; organization; association; China; homeowner; property; democratization

The author examines the rapid spread of common interest housing developments (CIDs) throughout much of California in recent years and the potential consequences of that phenomenon for electoral politics. Covering 34 counties, the analysis includes census data, construction industry data, and results from the statewide general election of 1994. The study supports the view that considerations of land economics that affect developers and fiscal constraints that affect local governments are the dominant forces behind the spread of CID housing. The study also suggests that this form of privatization may have underappreciated implications for electoral and interest group politics at the state and local levels., In the past three decades, common interest housing developments (CIDs)(1) including planned unit developments (PUDs) and condominiums,(2) began to proliferate in new housing construction throughout much of the United States. [...]

We study neighborhood associations as local political actors. In our sample, most were formed around a single neighborhood issue, typically involving land-development projects. Their most common opponents include local government and business and real estate developers. The well-known growth-machine model is challenged in two ways. First, although growth issues are prominent in the establishment of neighborhood associations, in many cases they are joined or replaced by other kinds of issues (such as public services or safety). Second, local government is perceived as a political ally as often as it is seen as an opponent, and sometimes it is seen as both on the same issue.