The ungovernable city : the politics of urban problems and policy making
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The ungovernable city : the politics of urban problems and policy making
(MIT studies in American politics and public policy, 3)
MIT Press, c1977
- : pbk
Available at 25 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
"We confront an urban wilderness more formidable and resistant and in some ways more frightening than the wilderness faced by the pilgrims or the pioneers." What Robert Kennedy warned in 1966 is, ten years later, more starkly true than ever. As controversies about American cities rage, this critique takes a hard, unflattering look at the urban plight. Those who expect facile answers, utopian visions, or panaceas should, however, be cautioned: the book offers none. What it does offer is an interior view of urban policy making and an example of the most astute kind of policy study.Professor Yates argues that the urban policy-making system is no longer capable of producing coherent decisions, developing effective policies, or implementing programs. lack of money is not the underlying cause. The real culprit has to do with contradictions fundamental to cities as political and social entities. Historically, cities evolved as "melting pots," developing haphazardly into loose structures composed of numerous antagonistic interests and forces. Urban management has largely consisted of hasty responses to crisis situations rather than long-range planning. City governments are at once too decentralized for overall policy making and too centralized to be truly responsive to its citizenry. By the same token they are both too independent of and too dependent on higher-level government (state, federal) for assistance.The basic function and distinctive feature of urban government is its service delivery. But here the system breaks down, for the mayor does not entirely control the administrators, and administrators cannot control the "street-level" employees-policemen, firemen, public school teachers. Fragmentation, instability-these are the result. The remedies are not simple and obvious, as Yates repeatedly makes clear. But if penetrating to the core of the problem is at all beneficial, The Ungovernable City is a step in the right direction.
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