Knowing One When You See It: Special-Purpose Authorities as a Fuzzy Set.

This paper considers large urban development projects in Chicago in the post-machine era (1983-present), specifically in the context of development projects' managing authorities. Rather than being counted fully in or out of the set of special-purpose authorities, as in crisp sets, managing authorities are placed on a fuzzy-set scale between "0" and "1" based on their institutional character (Ragin 2000). A series of causal characteristics (or independent variables, in crisp-set terminology) determine the conditions for use of special authorities versus municipal governments and analyze causal relationships. Causal characteristics considered include measures of fiscal stress, coalition character, past attempts at development projects, and the technical nature of development projects. This study applies new methods from comparative politics and political science generally to urban politics, and may lead to more accurate prediction of whether development projects will be offloaded or kept within the boundaries of city government. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]