As Morcöl (Pennsylvania State U.), Hoyt (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Meek (U. of La Verne), and Zimmerman (Kennesaw State U.) explain in their preface, business improvement
districts (BIDs) ＂are self-assessment districts that are initiated and governed by property or business owners and authorized by state or local governments to operate in designated urban and
suburban geographic areas.＂ They bring together theoretical, legal, and empirical scholarly work on BIDs. The theoretical and legal issues are tackled first in chapters that discuss issues of
democratic accountability, the BIDs model and the role of policy entrepreneurs, the change from town center management to the BIDs model in Britain, and BIDs as privatization of government. The
empirical papers consist of nine papers examining the BIDs experience in the United and four discussing experiences in Canada, Britain, and Ireland. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland,
OR (booknews.com)
