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Document Type

Article

Abstract

Neighborhood governance systems have been developed as a way to enhance citizen engagement in local government, particularly in major cities. Scholarly research on these systems is quite limited, and most articles focus on neighborhood councils in Los Angeles, California. Our study extends this research to another system in a different city – specifically, community councils in Cincinnati, Ohio. Based on Li, Wen, and Cooper (2019), we surveyed their governing board members and analyzed relationships between three aspects of board performance (internal capacity, attention-action congruence, external networking) and three dimensions of community council effectiveness (promoting civic engagement, resolving neighborhood issues, advising on city policies). There were significant and positive relationships between internal capacity and all three dimensions of effectiveness; that is, more competent board governance is associated with stronger community council effectiveness overall. These findings contribute to the neighborhood governance literature that has been developing gradually over the past 15 years.

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