Public Engagement Tool Use in U.S. Municipalities: Patterns and Context

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.