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There are two problems with this &dquo; intense preoccupation with eco-nomic development that has been marked by a level of consensus and expectation unusual in American politics&dquo;(Eisinger 1988: 3). First, those interested in the practice of economic development have placed such emphasis on being exhaustive in identifying options that they tend to ignore variation in the conditions under which communities are willing or able to adopt different policies. Second, scholars have examined such variation, but have been polarized around two compet-ing explanations, one based on the broader economic and political sys-tems (structure) and another that relies on the actions of local political and economic actors (agency). This note addresses these issues by analyzing variation in the economic development policies adopted by a large national sample of city governments.