Business and Unions in American Government: The Local Side of the Story
2026-07-13
It is widely understood that business is powerful in American politics, and a prominent view among political scientists is that business influence pushes policy to the right, in favor of smaller government. As vast as the literature on business power is, however, it has so far neglected an important part of American government: its tens of thousands of local governments. Moreover, although there has been a surge in US local politics research in recent years, it has not yet examined businesses’ positions on local government policies. This essay begins to bridge these gaps. I propose that businesses and business associations may often support well-funded local government, in alignment with unions, because of the kinds of policies local governments make and their relatively smaller scale. In an analysis of campaign contributions to local tax ballot measures in California, I find that the overwhelming majority of union and business contributions are made in support of tax increases. In another analysis of local chambers of commerce positions on local tax and bond ballot measures, I find that chambers endorsed passage for 70% of them. These findings underscore the need for more research on a host of important questions about American politics, comparative politics, and business preferences.