In this study, Robert Stein asks whether the way cities are organized affects how well they provide services for their residents. He weighs the small and large organizational choices every local government makes - from its paper flow and chain-of-command to its funding sources and contracting arrangements - against the real end results of services for citizens: sanitation, transportation, public safety and education. Though the organizational structure of local governments has often been studied, researchers until now have relatively ignored the relationship between a city's organization and its actual performance.