Ecology of City Policymaking

This work presents a new method of analyzing urban public policy. The author has created a theoretical "life-cycle" of the policy-making process in American cities, which is used to explain several crucial aspects of urban policy formulation. These aspects include how issues emerge and are placed on the agenda of local government, and how the age of cities affects the process and content of policy-making. Robert Waste's ecology model highlights the limitations and weaknesses of the processes through which urban problems such as crime, inadequate state schools, pollution, poverty and toxic waste disposal are addressed. The study aims to bridge two areas of study by providing both theoretical and case-study links between the fields of public policy and urban politics.