ABSTRACT
This chapter examines patterns of policy preferences among local leaders, concentrating on two issues: what were the opinions concerning privatization of the economy and of local services in particular; what were their spending preferences? It considers views on the expansion of the public sector, alternatively of privatization and its significance in reducing the local budget. Local government reform in East-Central Europe proceeded in times of economic trouble in national economies with subsequent fiscal stress at the local level. But fiscal stress also characterized the west European economies at this time, Harold Wolman found a clear sequence of responses in policy formation among local governments in fiscal stress. The standard deviation of spending preferences as a measure of policy specificity has been developed by Terry N. Clark and Lincoln Quillian. They suggest that low issue specificity means the existence of traditional class politics, while high diversity of spending preferences may indicate "a new political culture" among mayors.
