The Early Years in the Life Cycle of City Councils: a Downsian Analysis

Robert J. Waste
Additional contact information
Robert J. Waste: Department of Political Science, Brown University, Providence, U.S.A

Urban Studies, 1983, vol. 20, issue 1, 73-81

Abstract: Anthony Downs argues that most government bureaus follow an eight stage developmental life cycle including such steps as: (1) birth of the agency, (2) early dominance by 'advocates' or 'zealots', (3) a struggle for autonomy followed by (4) a struggle for support, (5) rapid growth, and (6) a 'decelerator effect' ending in (7) a 'crisis of continuity' and rarely — (8) death. The present article applies Downs' life cycle explanation of bureaucratic agency behaviour to an elected public body and argues that elected bodies exhibit characteristics similar to nonelected and long-term bureaucratic organisations.

Date: 1983
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/713703153 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:20:y:1983:i:1:p:73-81

DOI: 10.1080/713703153

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().