Culture Wars and Local Politics. Edited by Elaine B. Sharp. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999. 250p. $35.00 cloth, $16.95 paper

In: American political science review, Band 95, Heft 1, S. 221-222

Abstract

Although political conflict is certainly no stranger to U.S.
cities, the contributors to Culture Wars suggest that a new
kind of conflict, heavily embued with moral overtones, is
surfacing with more frequency on the urban landscape.
Battles over abortion, gay and lesbian rights, hate crimes, and
the like, are taking their place along side the more traditional
disputes associated with service delivery, economic develop-
ment, and redistribution of resources. The morality-based
nature of these new culture wars has, according to the
contributors, created a new type of politics that is evidenced
in the way issues are presented, debated, and resolved. These
differences are a function of the passion associated with
moral claims, the involvement of religious organizations, and
the use of nonconventional protest tactics that can be fairly
aggressive. These differences between how culture wars play
out and politics as usual may render existing theories of local
politics insufficient.