ABSTRACT
Who’s really running your city? Ask around and you’ll get different answers. Some will say the mayor and council or city manager—the obvious answer and the correct one if democracy is functioning well. Others will point to behind-the-scenes powers, perhaps major developers or landowners, or corporate leaders who they think pull the strings that control local government. The assumption behind the question of who’s running the city is that it isn’t necessarily the obvious officeholders who wield power—it could be others, inside or outside of government.
