Comment by wpietri

For homeowners associations in particular, I think a lot of the history is rooted in American race and class bias. A lot of American suburbs were created due to white flight [1]. And although they're mostly no longer explicitly racist, they're very stratified by income, which can be read as class bias and/or quiet racism.

That desire for exclusion and enforced superiority appeals to some more than others. So it's unsurprising to me that HOA boards frequently turn out awful.

Happily, as older, first-ring suburbs turn into cities in their own right, we're seeing some reversal of that. E.g., as kids and grandkids stay in the area, we're seeing demographic and income diversification. Some places are realizing that things they've previously excluded, like drug treatment and publicly supported housing, are now necessary.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight