Mr. Fischer, the next section of the book provides one possible answer to your question. According to the authors people have no power in local government because they choose not to participate in it and they chose not to participate in it because they are under the impression (whether it is right or wrong) than local government is not important. The authors maintain that there is somewhat of a paradoxical quality to this situation. in many cases local government is not important because no one cares, no one cares because they do not think its important, no one participates so they have no power and no-one has any power because there is no power to be had in an impotent government. While this section was interesting it failed to enumerate what powers local governments actually have. Most school functions (I think) are controlled by local government and as these control not only the value of education but also the value of property I would think they would stimulate interest in local government. I also received the general impression that it is ordinary people and not politicians who drive local decisions. People who run for school board do not typically have high political aspirations, as a result they are unlikely to affect dramatic changes. It is only in communities where people are invovled and where they push their officials that real acitvity occurrs on a local level. To me, communities with lots of children (and a higher emphasis on education) would be a primary example of this phenomenon. However, Brookline is such a community and to my knowedge there is very limited involvement in local politics. It would be interesting to delve further into this topic and discover if people in Brookline are involved in politics but more subtly than I had first imagined.