Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government. - book reviews

Reason, August-Sept, 1995 by John McClaughry

If CID living is as onerous as McKenzie claims, it's a wonder anybody actually lives in them. But McKenzie is at pains to demonstrate that CIDs are not the product of a voluntary Lockean contract among people who wish to escape the state of nature in return for common benefits. Instead, he says, the associations are a compulsory residential nightmare. His wrath is heightened by horror stories about tyrannical enforcement of CC&Rs: a woman taken to court because her dog weighed more than 30 pounds; a man who sued his senior-citizen community because it disallowed residence by his new 45-year-old wife; and a man sued by his RCA because he erected a fence to keep his young son from wandering over a 400-foot cliff. He describes how RCAs rely upon state government to bolster their enforcement and collection powers, while at the same time bidding government to remain outside the gates.

McKenzie builds much of his attack on the highly dubious proposition that the residents did not consent to this oppressive private government. According to him, they found themselves living in CIDs because they had no realistic options for living anywhere else. This will probably come as a surprise to CID residents, who thought they chose CID ownership of their own free will, and to non-residents who must wonder how they came to be spared.

At times, McKenzie grants that residents were not forced to join CIDs against their will. But that merely means they chose to join, in which case McKenzie views them as small-minded, selfish, illiberal, greedy dropouts from the great duty of life - namely, to make municipal government work and to straggle bravely toward economic justice for all instead of feathering their own nest.

Foldvary's shining RCA vision is a polycentric world of proprietary communities, wisely and efficiently operated with the consent of the residents by disinterested princes akin to Swiss hotel managers. McKenzie's horrible CID nightmare is an equally polycentric world of walled and guarded enclaves of the rich, petty, and socially irresponsible, where every generous impulse and mark of individuality is confined by a CC&R designed to advance the single-minded goal of property value protection and enhancement. Between these two poles lies Robert Jay Dilger's Neighborhood Politics.

Dilger, a political scientist at West Virginia University, is not seeking to grind an axe. His goal is to illuminate the origins, principles, development, and policy questions relating to the RCA movement. He blends exhaustive knowledge of his subject with an exemplary clarity of presentation. Without rhetorical flourishes or involved economic and legal analysis, he makes clear the various cases for and against RCAs. His conclusions are generally favorable to RCAs, and his recommendations include offering better information to prospective buyers to avoid ugly surprises later on, achieving better relations with local government, and providing representation for renters. He is supportive of the RCA as a channel for political activity, and as a forum for the practice of civic virtue.