The Korea Local Administration Review

This research investigates two important questions about local political structures that affect the promotion of affordable housing and about factors in community demographic status that determine the promotion of affordable housing. Regarding political market theory, local political institutions, community demand and the interaction between local politics and community demand are tested to find a mechanism and evidence for constructing affordable housing in a local community. Based on four published sources, 1) the FHDC, 2) the 2000 U.S. Census, 3) the 2003 survey of growth management and 4) the 2006 survey of land use regulation conducted by the DeVoe Moore Center at Florida State University, this paper studies the mayor-council form of government and the percentage of low-income positively affect on the construction of affordable housing and percentage of home ownership negatively affect on construction of affordable housing. Through the interaction between local politics and community demand, the political market theory applies to local affordable housing construction, and the mediating role of political institutions is a core mechanism for explaining the construction of affordable housing. Finally, various governmental structures incorporating with a variety of political cognition and behavior contains the solution to the question of how much elected politicians reflect community voices and of how the construction of affordable housing is generated or operates in a local government.