Privatopia
Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government
Winner of American Political Science Association's Best Book on Urban Politics Award
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994 (hard cover), 1996 (trade paper)
This book is the first comprehensive study of the political and social issues posed by the rise of CIDs. Evan McKenzie shows how the developments diminish residents' sense of responsibility for the city as a whole by making them reluctant to pay taxes for the same public services that their fees provide. McKenzie also shows that the private governments of CIDs depart from accepted notions of liberal democracy, promoting a unique and limited version of citizenship that has serious implications for civil liberties. He argues that the spread of CID housing has important consequences for politics at all levels of government, because CID advocates now constitute a significant force in interest group politics in many states, often organizing to demand tax breaks or credits for CID residents. Tracing the history of CID housing from the nineteenth century to the present, he highlights the important but little-understood role public policy has played in advancing this large-scale "privatization for the few," and he concludes by considering the implications for urban politics.
Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government on “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” (April 10, 2023)
This book is the first comprehensive study of the political and social issues posed by the rise of common-interest housing developments and their private governments. Tracing the history of this type of housing from the nineteenth century to the present, McKenzie highlights the important but little-understood role public policy has played in advancing this large-scale “privatization for the few,” and he concludes by considering CIDs’ implications for civil liberties and politics at all levels of government.For those genuinely concerned with the moral fiber of modern America, they might well heed McKenzie’s warning about uncritically accepting the privatization of citizenship in an income-segregated society.
—Clarence N. Stone, American Political Science Review
Elegantly written and detailed […] McKenzie’s book is a moral fable for us all.
—Colin Ward, Building Design
A new discourse on the history and impact of restrictive covenants in homeowners associations.
—Andrėe Brooks, New York Times
McKenzie has written a very useful book for planners, one that we should read and pass on to members of local governments and planning commissions as food for thought.
—George C. Hemmens, Journal of Planning Education and Research
The most complete work to date examining CIDs is political scientist Evan McKenzie’s new book. […] McKenzie shows how CIDs encourage a limited idea of citizenship, impinge on civil liberties, promote a two-class society of haves and have-nots, and institutionalize the separation of city and suburb.
—Karen Danielsen and Robert Lang, Community & Urban Sociology