ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the proposition that the performance of a local government can be significantly improved if private interests assume a positive role in their relationships with city government. The role of private interests in our democratic system of government is a subject that has generated long and hot debate. Private interests and institutions indirectly affect the performance of local government through their ability to influence the decisions of political leaders and municipal managers who directly affect the way in which a local government performs. Some people argue that we should decrease or even eliminate the influence of private interests in the process of making and carrying out public policy. Flint contains a wide variety of private institutions and special-interest groups, each with an ability to affect public decisions. The United Auto Workers in 1974 was a powerful private-interest group in Flint that exercised its influence in areas considerably beyond the narrow confines of labor-management relations.
