What really happened when citizens were asked to participate in their community’s poverty programs? In this revealing new book, the authors provide an answer to this question through a systematic empirical analysis of a single public policy issue—citizen participation in the Community Action Program of the Johnson Administration’s “War on Poverty.” Beginning with a brief case study description and analysis of the politics of community action in each of America’s five largest cities—New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Philadelphia—the authors move on to a fascinating examination of race and authority structures in our urban life.In a series of lively chapters, Professors Greenstone and Peterson show how the coalitions that formed around the community action question developed not out of electoral or organizational interests alone, but were strongly influenced by our conceptions of the nature of authority in America. They discuss the factors that affected the development of the action program and they note that democratic elections of low-income representatives, however much preferred by democratic reformers, were an ineffective way of representing the interests of the poor.The book stresses the way in which both machine and reform structures affected the ability of minority groups to organize effectively and to form alliances in urban politics. It considers the wide-ranging critiques made of the Community Action Program by conservative, liberal, and radical analysts and finds that all of them fail to appreciate the significance and intensity of the racial cleavage in American politics.

Product Description: Winner of the 1981 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book published in the United States on government, politics, or international affairs."City Limits radically reinterprets urban politics by deriving its dominant forces from the logic of the American federal structure...read more

Product Description: America's inner cities, particularly those in older industrial metropolitan areas, have declined sharply in both population and employment over the past two decades. How much of this change is due to technological advances in transportation, communication, and manufacturing? How much of it is due to the changing racial composition of the central cities? Can any set of public policies retard or reverse the decline of the industrial cities?This book presents an interdisciplinary collection of papers addressing these questions...read more

Topics include:Part One: Voters and ElectionsThe New Two-Party SystemThe Economic Basis of Reagan's AppealIncumbency and Realignment in Congressional ElectionsCampaigning, Governing, and the Contemporary PresidencyThe Republican Advantage in Campaign FinanceThe Rise of National PartiesPart Two: Institutions and PolicyNew Patterns of Decisionmaking in CongressThe Politicized PresidencyFederalism and the Bias for CentralizationControlling EntitlementsSecurity PolicyThe New Politics of Deficits

Twenty years ago cooperative federalism, in the form of federal grant-in-aid programs administered by state and local governments, was applauded almost without reservation as the best means of helping the handicapped, the educationally disadvantaged, the poor, and other groups with special needs. More recently these same programs have been criticized for excessive regulations and red tape, bureaucratic ineptitude, and high cost. The criticisms have been used to justify efforts to curb federal domestic spending and terminate many grants-in-aid.In When Federalism Works, Paul E. Peterson, Barry G. Rabe, and Kenneth K. Wong examine the new conventional wisdom about federal grants. Through documentary research and hundreds of interviews with local, state, and federal administrators and elected officials, they consider the implementation and operation of federal programs for education, health care, and housing in four urban areas to learn which programs worked, when, and why. Why did rent subsidy programs encounter seemingly endless difficulties, while special education was a notable success? Why did compensatory education fare better in Milwaukee than in Baltimore? Among the factors the authors find significant are the extent to which a program is directed toward groups in need, the political and economic circumstances of the area in which it is implemented, and the degree of professionalism among those who administer it at all levels of government. When Federalism Works provides a solid introduction to the most important grant-in-aid programs of the past twenty years and a thoughtful assessment of where they might be going.

Product Description: Effective government requires that institutions be strong enough to control the efforts of organized, entrenched special interests in favor of the broader interests shared but poorly articulated by most members of society. Recent changes in our institutions and in the problems they face raise doubts about the capacity of contemporary American government to handle these parochial forces...read more

Product Description: This text provides a clear and concise view of current perspectives in schoollaw and makes the all-important leap from theory to practice, with a focus onthe day-to-day realities of school law. Subjects include student rights, teacherrights, tort action, power and authority, change, and conflict...read more

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Product Description: What is the price of federalism? Does it result in governmental interconnections that are too complex? Does it create overlapping responsibilities? Does it perpetuate social inequalities? Does it stifle economic growth?To answer these questions, Paul Peterson sets forth two theories of federalism: functional and legislative...read more

Product Description: While educators, parents and policymakers are still debating the pros and cons of school choice, it is now possible to learn from choice experiments in public, private, and charter schools across the country. This book examines the evidence from these early school choice programs and looks at the larger implications of choice and competition in education...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: Election update edition. Comprehensive book on the history of the American Democracy and especially how it works in our modern day, illustrated with photographs, graphs, maps, etc. Printed in 1999.

Product Description: Education is one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy--yet scholars, educators, policymakers, and parents do not agree about what the money spent on education really buys. In particular, they do not agree on how much education improves children's ability to learn or whether the things children learn in school truly improve their chances for success as adults...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: United States government - exciting new resource for teaching and learning about the US political system. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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