In this seminal work, the authors argue that there are distict local factors that shape the environment of economic development decision-making. These factors, taken together, constitute a community's local civic culture. Using survey and case study data from U.S and canadian cities, the authors make the case that different cultures will produce different types of economic development policies, and that local civic culture will effect the whole array of local policies.

The focus on economic development policy provides a window on local decision-making and allows for the development of a theory, introduced by the authors, about the role of local civic culture in framing local decisions of all types. This ultimately provides a theoretical vehicle for categorizing cities and predicting policy outcomes. The book concludes with an overview of what is known about the economic development process and highlights the questions raised about that knowledge by the analyses used here and the focus on civic cultures. New research questions are posed and new directions raised for continued application of a local civic culture approach toward understanding urban policy processes.