Studies in Government and Public Policy – serie

From the end of Georgia's white primary in 1946 to the present, Atlanta has been a community of growing black electoral strength and stable white economic power. Yet the ballot box and investment money never became opposing weapons in a battle for domination. Instead, Atlanta experienced the emergence and evolution of a biracial coalition. Although beset by changing conditions and significant cost pressures, this coalition has remained intact. At critical junctures forces of cooperation overcame antagonisms of race and ideology.While retaining a critical distance from rational choice theory, author Clarence Stone finds the problem of collective action to be centrally important. The urban condition in America is one of weak and diffuse authority, and this situation favors any group that can act cohesively and control a substantial body of resources. Those endowed with a capacity to promote cooperation can attract allies and overcome oppositional forces.On the negative side of the political ledger, Atlanta's style of civic cooperation is achieved at a cost. Despite an ambitious program of physical redevelopment, the city is second only to Newark, New Jersey, in the poverty rate. Social problems, conflict of interest issues, and inattention to the production potential of a large lower class bespeak a regime unable to address a wide range of human needs. No simple matter of elite domination, it is a matter of governing arrangements built out of selective incentives and inside deal-making; such arrangements can serve only limited purposes. The capacity of urban regimes to bring about elaborate forms of physical redevelopment should not blind us to their incapacity to address deeply rooted social problems.Stone takes the historical approach seriously. The flow of events enables us to see how some groups deploy their resource advantages to fashion governing arrangements to their liking. But no one enjoys a completely free hand; some arrangements are more workable than others. Stone's theory-minded analysis of key events enables us to ask why and what else might be done. Regime Politics offers readers a political history of postwar Atlanta and an elegant, innovative, and incisive conceptual framework destined to influence the way urban politics is studied.

If you think your job is hopelessly difficult, you may be right. Particularly if your job is public administration.Those who study or practice public management know full well the difficulties faced by administrators of complex bureaucratic systems. What they don't know is why some jobs in the public sector are harder than others and how good managers cope with those jobs.Drawing on leadership theory and social psychology, Erwin Hargrove and John Glidewell provide the first systematic analysis of the factors that determine the inherent difficulty of public management jobs and of the coping strategies employed by successful managers. To test their argument, Hargrove and Glidewell focus on those jobs fraught with extreme difficulties—"impossible" jobs.What differentiates impossible from possible jobs are (1) the publicly perceived legitimacy of the commissioner's clientele; (2) the intensity of the conflict among the agency's constituencies; (3) the public's confidence in the authority of the commissioner's profession; and (4) the strength of the agency's "myth," or long-term, idealistic goal.Hargrove and Glidewell flesh out their analysis with six case studies that focus on the roles played by leaders of specific agencies. Each essay summarizes the institutional strengths and weaknesses, specifies what makes the job impossible, and then compares the skills and strategies that incumbents have employed in coping with such jobs. Readers will come away with a thorough understanding of the conflicting social, psychological, and political forces that act on commissioners in impossible jobs.

In this revised update, the authors have extended and refined their analysis of Detroit-area automakers and political leaders negotiating the selection of new factory sites and the consequent addition of thousands of jobs to the local economy. This analysis utilises the concept of ""solution sets"".

A study of the actual effect of the use of the veto, focusing on those elements of the policy-making process that influence presidential decisions on vetoes. Watson's analysis of presidential vetoes ranges from Franklin Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter.

The American Congress, in the mid-1990s, remains the object of voter discontent. Public outcries against special interests and unresponsive incumbents have amplified an already pervasive scepticism towards Beltway politics. The book covers policy towards agricultural issues in particular.

This study of how the American Congress communicates shows that although at any one time there are relatively few in Congress undertaking extensive searches for information, the collective base of information generated by all searches is unexpectedly comprehensive. Practical examples are included.

Recalling Tocqueville's exhortation for the French to ""look to America"" for a better understanding of their own government, this book reveals how much can be learned about American constitutionalism from a close study of French governance.

This work provides an analysis of presidential transitions from JFK to Bill Clinton. The author argues that, in order to accomplish his policy objectives, a new president must always first gain control of and organise the government.

Urban politics often features the conflict between ""pro-growth"" coalitions, centred around downtown developments, and a neighbouhood component. This study examines why neighbourhood challenges to pro-growth politics were more successful in Pittsburgh than Chicago.

This analysis of urban neighbourhoods in the United States from 1960 to 1995 presents 15 original essays by scholars of urban planning and development. Together they show how urban neighbourhoods can and must be preserved as economic, cultural and political centres.

This text examines the origins, legitimacy and limitations of public administration from the perspective of the American Founders' thought. It shows that these men advocated an energetic public administration as an essential component of government.

An overview of civil rights enforcement which reveals the political realities and national priorities that shaped it; the moral, practical, and political forces that have influenced it; and the roles of the federal government, executive branch, and Attorney General in implementing it.

How can democracy be improved in an age when people are profoundly disenchanted with government? Part of the answer lies in the design of public policy that unmistakenly works to advance citizenship by listening to, educating, and involving ordinary people. Rather than serve mainly the narrow interests of powerful groups who are socially constructed as "deserving" or issuing discipline and punishment to powerless people socially constructed as "undeserving," public policy needs to advance citizenship, solve problems, pursue justice, and balance the interests of individuals with a concern for the collective good.Policy Design for Democracy is a theoretically sophisticated work that draws examples from a wide array of public policy arenas. It summarizes four current approaches to policy theory-pluralism, policy sciences, public choice, and critical theory-and shows how none offers more than a partial view of the policy design characteristics that support and perpetuate democracy. Schneider and Ingram then develop a theory of public policymaking predicated on understanding how differences in policy designs are related to differences in the contexts from which they emerge and how these designs have an impact on democracy.One of the first books to examine systematically the substantive aspects of public policy, Policy Design for Democracy is written clearly and with sufficient examples to make it easily understandable by undergraduates. Its linkage of public policy to citizenship is an important antidote to the overly technical and goal-driven orientation adopted by the policy sciences and public choice, and to the overly self-interested and strategic political games found in pluralist theory. Schneider and Ingram close by recommending a series of reforms that will improve policy designs and help restore citizen confidence in government.

This text examines issues proposed by aggrieved individuals or groups denied access to policy agendas. It develops a theoretical framework for the study of agenda setting and agenda denial, emphasizing the cultural strategies opponents use to defeat and impede policy initiatives.

In this study of clergy and politics, five social scientists tell how and why the technological orthodoxy and modernism that divides American Protestants into two camps increasingly correlates with today's political climate.

This study provides a history of presidential reorganization in the 20th century, from Theodore Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. The author highlights the century-long efforts of presidents to consolidate and expand their roles and powers within American government.

This work looks at the controversial social programme ""Aid to Families with Dependent Children"" (AFDC). It includes an examination of the role of the courts in AFDC, the rise of welfare waivers, and the failure of the Clinton welfare plan. The book also discusses how AFDC will fare in the future.

This text examines the factors that shape, reinforce or undermine reform efforts in urban education. It proposes that the barrier to reform can only be overcome by understanding how schools fit into the broader political contexts of their cities.

This text encourages civil servants to reflect on specific constitutional principles and events and learn to apply them to the decisions they make. It includes 20 articles which seek to legitimate public service by grounding its ethics in constitutional practice.

This collection offers alternative explanations of local actions with a focus on conflict. It features examples of experiences selected from various cities. It examines how the responses of local governments to specific issues are influenced by such factors as political culture and intitutions.

This work tells the story of how cultural politics and economic greed transformed the New York's physical and social environment with an ongoing multibillion-dollar redevelopment programme, changing the district from a symbol of urban decay to one of urban renaissance.

Drawing upon democratic theory and the results of field research, Kathryn McDermott contends that the American educational system can be made more democratic by centralizing control over funding while decentralizing most authority over schools to the level of schools themselves.

An explanation of why some US cities are better at educational reform than others. It relates education to politics, showing how the ""whole village"" can be mobilized to better educate tomorrow's citizens. It is based on an 11-city study of civic capacity and urban education.

An examination of why school reform has been difficult to achieve in Baltimore. It reveals the struggles of black civic leaders and the limitations placed on Baltimore's African American community as each has tried to rescue a failing school system.

An examination of the fundamental role of politics in funding American public schools. Kenneth Wong underscores constitutional stalemate and the lack of political will to act as important factors that affect legislative deadlock in school finance reform.