Toward “Strong Democracy” in Global Cities? Social Capital Building, Theory-Driven Reform, and the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Experience*

Most recently an interest in “strong democracy” and building “social” and “civic” capital has seized the popular imagination in the United States, especially in urban areas. Strong democracy has spawned citizen participatory initiatives across the United States, initiatives that have generated excellent studies assessing their success. In this chapter, authors argue, however, that the broad institutional prerequisites for successful participatory institutions that have been the focus of much of the existing literature are insufficient for developing a vibrant participatory system-especially in “global” cities with highly diverse and mobile populations. Author’s argument is founded on a longitudinal study involving years of action research and evaluation of the neighborhood council system in Los Angeles (LA). The charter directed LA to engage neighborhood councils in the budget process, to establish regular meetings between neighborhood councils and departmental general managers, and to support a Congress of Neighborhoods-all best practices culled from the literature on neighborhood boards.