ABSTRACT
In this chapter and the next (Chapter 8), we analyze the critically important relationship between neighborhood associations (NHAs) and local governments. Given the theoretical attention focused on community organizations, social capital generation, and the state’s role, the relationship holds great interest for us. As noted in Chapter 1, NHAs are not simply organizations located in local communities; they play a mediating role between residents and local governments (as a straddling civil society organization) (Pekkanen and Read, 2003; Read and Pekkanen, 2009). Of course, this relationship also holds the potential to inform closely our understanding of how NHAs contribute to local governance. In practical or policy terms, the stakes are if anything even clearer: this is a central relationship for both sides. NHAs have always been closely involved with local governments, providing services to residents and playing the role of communicating the intentions of local residents to local government. Local governments rely on NHAs and would be sorely discomfited to lose them (and indeed they fret constantly about the decline of NHAs).
