Colloquium on Urban Politics, Policymaking and Administration
POS G 8232x
Fall 1996
Demetrios Caraley  

The objective of the course is to analyze the process of policymaking and implementation in the governments of large American cities. Particular attention is given to the nature of urban problems; the federal government's role in urban affairs; the resources, strategies and tactics of selected city officials such as big city mayors and bureaucrats in shaping urban policies; the general characteristics of urban policymaking and alternative futures for large cities.

Course Requirements: All members of the course are expected to read the required readings (preferably in the order listed) and to participate in class discussions. A term paper will be due in November on a topic to be agreed upon by the student and the professor.

COURSE READINGS:

1. THE NATURE OF URBAN POLITICS, POLICYMAKING, AND ADMINISTRATION

2. THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT: POVERTY, CRIME, RACIAL/ETHNIC POLARIZATION, DECAYING INFRA-STRUCTURE, WEAK ECONOMIC BASE

Report of the President's Advisory (Kerner) Commission on Civil Disorders, Chapters 6-9.
E.C. Banfield, The Unheavenly City Revisited, Chapters 4-6, and skim the rest.
Murray Charles, "Have the Poor Been Losing Ground?," Political Science Quarterly, 100, No. 3 (1985): 427-445.
W.J. Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy, chs. 1-4.
P. Peterson, "The Urban Underclass and the Poverty Paradox" and William Julius Wilson, "Another Look at The Truly Disadvantaged," in Caraley, Demetrios (ed.), Critical Issues on Clinton's Domestic Agenda, pp. 31-70.
J. Sleeper, The Closest of Strangers: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York, chs. 4-7.
C. McNickle, To Be Mayor of New York: Ethnic Politics in New York City, chs. 10-13.
Congressional Budget Office, "The Causes of New York City's Fiscal Crisis," Political Science Quarterly, 90, No. 4, (1975-76): pp. 659-674.

3. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND URBAN AFFAIRS

Kerner Commission Report, Chapter 17.
D. Caraley, "Carter, Congress, and the Cities," in Dale Rogers Marshall (ed.), Urban Policymaking, pp. 71-98.
D. Caraley, "Washington Abandons the Cities," in Caraley, (ed.), Critical Issues on Clinton's Domestic Agenda, pp. 1-30.
J.L. Pressman and A. Wildavsky, Implementation (3rd ed.), Chapters 1-7.
S.A. Levitan and R. Taggart, "The Great Society Did Succeed," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 91 (Winter 1976-77).

4. SELECTED INFLUENTIALS IN URBAN POLICYMAKING

A. City Hall Officialdom: Mayors, Mayoral Staff, Managers, Councilpersons

C.R. Morris, The Cost of Good Intentions, Chapter 10.
D. Caraley, Doing More With Less, Chapters 4-6.
E. Koch, The Mayor, Chapters 5-7.
B. Ferman, Governing the Ungovernable City, Chapters 4-9.
M.B. Preston, et. al., The New Black Politics, 2nd ed., Chapters 8-11.
G.A. Persons, "Black Mayoralties and the New Black Politics," in G.A. Persons (ed.), Dilemmas of Black Politics, ch. 3.
J.H. Mollenkopf, A Phoenix in the Ashes: The Rise and Fall of the Koch Coalition in New York City Politics, chs. 5, 7, 8.
E. Fuchs, Mayors and Money, Chapter 8.

B. Commissioners and Career Bureaucrats

A. Wildavsky, The Politics of the Budgetary Process, 2nd or 3rd ed., Chapters 2 and 3.
A. Meltsner, Policy Analysts in the Bureaucracy, Chapters 1, 2, 7.
S. Levy, A.J. Meltsner, and A. Wildavsky, Urban Outcomes, Chapter 1 (students whose names begin with A-H), Chapter 2 (students whose names begin with I-Q), Chapter 3 (students whose names begin with R-Z) and Chapter 4.
D. Caraley, Doing More With Less, Chapters 2 and 3.
E. Koch, The Mayor, Chapter 14.
H. Kaufman, "Robert Moses: Charismatic Bureaucrat," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 90 (Fall, 1975), pp. 521-538.

5. PRESENTATION OF PAPERS

6. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN INFLUENCE AND ALTERNATIVE FUTURES FOR LARGE CITIES.

A. Downs, "The Future of Industrial Cities" in Peterson, The New Urban Reality, pp. 281-294.
New York Ascendant: The Report of the Commission on the Year 2000
C.E. Lindblom, "The Science of Muddling Through," Public Administration Review, Vol. 19 (Spring 1959), pp. 79-88.
Dahl, Who Governs?, pp. 89-103, 169-275, 305-325.
P. Bachrach and M. Baratz, "Two Faces of Power," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 57 (December 1962), pp. 947-952.
R. Reich, "What Is A Nation?", in Caraley, Critical Issues on Clinton's Domestic Agenda, pp. 225-241.

SOURCE MATERIALS:

All members of this colloquium should familiarize themselves with what is contained in the following reference materials:

U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States (annual).
U.S. Census, Current Population Reports, Consumer Income, Series P-60.
U.S.______, City Government Finances: (annual)
U.S. _______, Government Finances: (annual).
U.S. Bureau of the Census, Local Government Finances in Selected Metropolitan Areas and Large Counties: (annual).
U.S.______, Census of Governments; (Published every five years).
U.S.______, Census of the Population; (Published every ten years, last issued 1990).
U.S. Department of Justice, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics (annual).
Office of Management and Budget, The Budget of the United States Government; (annual).
_________, Special Analyses, Budget of the United States Government; (annual).
International City Management Association. The Municipal Yearbook, (annual).
_______, The County Yearbook, (annual).
Council of State Government: The Book of the States (biennial).
New York City, The Green Book, (annual).