Sarah Blandy's comments on the NYT article
Sarah Blandy is Senior Lecturer in Housing Law, based in the School of Environment and Development, Sheffield Hallam University, England. She is part of the international network of scholars on gated and private communities. I'm happy to be able to post her comments:

From Sarah Blandy:
Some thoughts from an English lawyer on the NYT article and Chris's response:
- it's an interesting cyclical process if you accept the view that private governance steps into the gap left by inefficient national
government (lack of security and fear of crime) and by inefficient local government (poor provision of services), but then itself becomes
too oppressive and has to be curbed by government legislation;
- I think the above gives a more realistic picture than GCs being a response to / retreat from over-reaching municipal government accreting
to itself neighbourhood level governance functions; - there are checks against corrupt municipal government - and I suppose GCs can be self-correcting in that oppressive officers of HOAs can
be voted out, but this appears not to be happening in the States (is that right?);
- I think the GC phenomenon is culturally determined; American culture seems to be very litigious, but on the other hand a lot of American
cultural values make their way over to the UK sooner or later... but I would be surprised if we saw the same scenarios as in the NYT article
over here. This view is partly based on the difference in property law between the States and England, which means that GCs have a
different legal framework. Here, most GCs are set up on a leasehold basis, and there is a long history of mutually enforceable leasehold
covenants in blocks of flats and in many housing developments - but not a lot of litigation between residents or between management company
and individual residents (there have been some cases); and English law provides considerable protection for leaseholders against forfeiture
of the lease for breach of covenant.