HOMEOWNER ASSOCIATIONS AND THE RISE OF RESIDENTIAL PRIVATE GOVERNMENT
published by Yale University Press in 1994 in hard cover, and in 1995 in trade paperback. ISBN: 0-300-05876-4 (hard), 0-300-06638-4 (paper).
To purchase the book from the publisher, follow this link to Yale University Press
-Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University, Department of History, author
of "“Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States"
-Dennis Judd, University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of
Political Science, author of "The Politics of American Cities: Private
Power and Public Policy"
Received 1995 "Best Book on Urban Politics Award" from American Political
Science
Association
"In the past two decades, without public notice or public
debate, Americans have been establishing a new caste society,
typified by private walled communities and by private
governments within them that perform public functions.
“Privatopia” is the best book ever written about such homeowner
associations and the threat they pose to traditional notions of
equal opportunity and fair play. Persuasively argued and
beautifully written, it explodes the myth of the new Eden."
"McKenzie succeeds in persuading the reader that to understand
local and even national politics, it is essential to understand
how our notions of participation, community, and citizenship are
being changed by the proliferation of CIDs as privatized, quasi-
autonomous governments."
Suburban planned-unit developments of single family homes, urban condominiums, housing cooperatives, and other forms of common interest housing developments (CIDs) have become familiar sights in America. Currently there are about 150,000 of these developments, housing some 32 million people, or nearly one- eighth of the American population. Residents are required to belong to homeowner associations, pay monthly fees, and live under the rule of residential private governments. These governments perform functions for their residents that were once the province of local government, providing, for example, police protection, trash collection, and street maintenance and lighting. They also place restrictions on ownership of property and enforce rigid and often repressive codes of conduct governing the most private aspects of people's lives.
This book is the first comprehensive study of the
political and social issues posed by the rise of CIDs. Evan
McKenzie shows how the developments can diminish residents'
sense of responsibility for the city as a whole by making them
reluctant to pay taxes for the same public services that their
fees provide. McKenzie also shows that the private governments
of CIDs depart from accepted notions of liberal democracy,
promoting a unique and limited version of citizenship that has
serious implications for civil liberties. He argues that the
spread of CID housing has important consequences for politics at
all levels of government, because CID advocates now constitute a
significant force in interest group politics in many states,
often organizing to demand tax breaks or credits for CID
residents. Tracing the history of CID housing from the
nineteenth century to the present, McKenzie highlights the
important but little-understood role public policy has played in
advancing this large-scale "privatization for the few," and he
concludes by considering the implications for urban politics.
Evan McKenzie is associate professor of political
science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has
represented homeowner associations as an attorney in California.
He holds a J.D. from UCLA Law School and a Ph.D. in Political Science from
the University of Southern California.
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Evan
McKenzie
Department of Political Science
University of Illinois at Chicago
1007 W. Harrison St.
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 413-3782/ fax: 312-413-0440/ Internet: mckenzie@uic.edu