How Local Governments Govern Culture War Conflicts

Explores how local governments jump into national culture war conflicts despite being situated at the bottom of the federal hierarchy.

Mark Chou (Author), Rachel Busbridge (Author)

9781108811682, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 December 2020

75 pages
15 x 23 x 0.5 cm, 0.16 kg

While local governments have traditionally been thought relatively powerless and unpolitical, this has been rapidly changing. Recent years have seen local governments jump headfirst into a range of so-called culture war conflicts like those concerning LGBTI rights, refugee protection, and climate change. Using the Australia Day and Columbus Day controversies as case studies, this Element rejuvenates research on how local governments respond to culture war conflicts, documenting new fronts in the culture wars as well as the changing face of local government. In doing this, this Element extends foundational research by advancing four new categories of responsiveness that scholars and practitioners can employ to better understand the varied roles local governments play in contentious culture war conflicts.

1. Introduction
2. Local Government and Culture Wars: Sharp's Typology of Responses
3. Conceptualizing Culture War Conflicts
4. American Local Government Responses to Columbus Day
5. Australian Local Government Responses to Australia Day
6. Refining Local Governmental Responses to Culture Wars
7. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Organizational theory & behaviour [KJU], Politics & government [JP], Society & culture: general [JF]