Insulation by administration: the neutralization of competing interests in a rent control program

Many attempted solutions to the rental housing shortage in urban areas have resulted either in deterioration of the housing stock or the abandonment of the proposed solutions with a consequent fundamental change in the nature of the community. The competing interests--landlords, tenants, banks, taxpayer groups, social reform groups--cannot afford to have any single interest dominate the program. The administrative processes of rent control programs become the focus of conflict between these irreconcilable forces. The rent control program in Brookline avoids much of the problem by a calculated policy to neutralize the competing interests. The history of the program which describes the development of this policy is divided into three parts: (1) 1970-73 when conflict between the groups all but destroyed the program and produced various adjustments in it; (2) 1972-75 when a definite policy of neutralization was followed by a new board chairperson and a new director-counsel; and (3) 1975-77 when the policy was continued under a new chairperson (with the same director-counsel) who faced a very different board membership. Since a majority of Brookline voters and some 75% of its population are tenants, this policy provides an opportunity to discuss a normative theory of democracy as majority rule and the way it relates to the solution of pressing social problems.