City Politics: Private Power and Public Policy

by Dennis R. Judd, Todd Swanstrom

City Private Power and Public Policy by Judd, Dennis R.

Genres: Politics, Cities, History, Urban Planning, Urbanism, Nonfiction, The United States Of America

494 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like to read textbooks every once in awhile. It's the only way to get a solid grounding in a subject, and to plug up any glaring gaps in my knowledge that have developed from scattershot reading. For something like this, on a subject I've been reading about for years, I'd like to think I would know all the college-level basics. Not surprisingly, this book proves me wrong.

The book gives a great overview of everything from housing policy to transportation history to mayoral trends. Among its most interesting sections are those on the Supreme Court battles over voting rights (beginning with the 1975 act that included Latino voters and led to a massive switch from at-large to ward-based voting in cities), the conflict over Community Development Block Grants (which caused separate sections of the country to war over abstruse funding formulas involving the percentage of deserted houses per metro area), and the legislative history of revenue sharing (which allowed Nixon to split the Democratic party before the 1972 election).

With a book so chock full of research, it's inevitable that much of it becomes outdated quickly, and although I wished I had a more recent edition than the 2002, I figure even a brand new one would contain stats and facts that are long out of date.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that I used as a textbook in a class on Urban Politics (in its first edition). The book continues to use much the same theme as earlier versions. As such, its analysis of the impact of private power on urban policy is a useful reference point. Poignant are historical examples of how cities could have done better than by depending on machines. Hazen Pingree, a reform mayor of Detroit, is juxtaposed with the political machine. Contemporary examples are portrayed as well.

A good work. . . .