The paper described here demonstrate the usefulness of a political market approach to local policy that builds upon interest group theories of property rights and emphasizes the structure local political institutions. Across each of the three growth management policy areas examined here the interests of groups seeking particular policies and the interests of government officials who supply these programs are central to policy change, but the outcomes reflect the transaction costs of political exchange, not just the interests of the actors. The argument advanced here is that the study of policy change should not be divorced from the study of constitutional change. Policy theories can be revised to account for institutional settings, with an eye towards identifying how political dynamics are conditional on institutional structures and transaction costs.