2026/06/15 by Heather Rimes, JoBeth Shafran
Social Sciences · #Civic engagement #Community engagement #Context (archaeology) #Demographics #E-Government and Public Services #Government (linguistics) #Local government #Public Policy and Administration Research #Public Relations and Crisis Communication #Public engagement #Variety (cybernetics)
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/0160323x261458248
openalex publication_date 2026/06/15 · openalex created_date 2026/06/16 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Strategic design of direct public engagement methods is an important consideration for local government officials. We present a descriptive and exploratory investigation of correlations between local-level contextual factors and municipal public engagement practices. The article addresses two questions: (1) How heterogeneous are the public engagement mixes utilized by local governments in the United States? (2) What local-level variables are associated with increased heterogeneity of engagement mixes? Using data from the 2016 ICMA Innovation and Emerging Practices in Local Government Survey, we create an index to measure of number of direct public engagement tools and frequency of their use by municipalities. We find that local governments vary widely in combinations and frequency of use of direct public engagement tools, although, in general, increased capacity and resources are associated with more tools used. Municipal scale, home rule, democratic vote share, and demographics of the municipality are associated with increased variety of engagement tools.