Suchergebnisse

Thomas R. Dye & Thomas Lane Hurley ("The Responsiveness of Federal and State Governments to Urban Problems," The Journal of Politics, 1978, 40, 1, 196-207) measure the r of per capita outlay variables of the government & census variables indicating "needs" & "resources," concluding that they are virtually unrelated. However, both the form & content of their variables are criticized for, among other things, using per capita rather than per needy measures, failing to define "responsiveness," neglecting to factor out elements of federal spending unrelated to the needs in question, & failing to distinguish between obligations & expenditures. Moreover, the statistical methodology used is seen as inappropriate because it cannot measure response magnitude, lacks sensitivity to the effectiveness of the response, ignores absolute size of errors, & measures unrelated notions of fiscal response. In Measuring Responsiveness: A Brief Reply, Thomas R. Dye & Thomas Lane Hurley defend their conclusion that the federal government is largely unresponsive to social needs in cities, particularly noting that the use of simple r coefficients represents the best test of their hypothesis. 6 Tables, 1 Appendix. J. Cannon.

The accounts usually given of the causes of the "Ur crisis" are not satisfactory: congestion is decreasing, not increasing; the flight to the suburbs has not left the central cities on the verge of bankruptcy; the Ur housing supply is on the whole much better than ever; "white racism" has long been on the wane, & blacks are making rapid income & other gains; & the fragmentation of local gov does not account for its ineffectiveness. Changes in the state of the public mind are the main cause of the "crisis." Set in motion mainly by the ideas of philosophers, these are reflected in the att's of elites & of the Mc with respect to authority, the self, rational egotism, hedonism, egalitarianism, & consumerism. It follows that the "crisis" will not be ended by either gov programs or by exhortation. Modified HA.

When aligned with other services & facilities, transportation helps generate powerful forces for influencing the long-run real-estate market. Working to improve the productivity & livability of Ur areas, officials are increasingly looking to metropolitan policy studies for effective action & regulation programs. Beyond immediate considerations of access & congestion, transportation decisions are not expected to reflect the impacts of gov'al programs on general Ur development. The processes through which transportation decisions are made are themselves being modified in recognition of the broad reverberations of transport policy. With a wider array of persons & gov'al units concerned with these decisions, the criteria applied to the alternative possibilities are becoming more comprehensive. Criteria applied depend not merely on personal outlook, but also on the scope of responsibilities of the person weighing the alternatives. 2 opposite tendencies are at work: (1) a search for a reduction of criteria toward a single optimizing index accounting for all signif costs & benefits implicit in a proposed line of policy & program; & (2) a search better to identify & describe all the signif manifold repercussions of alternative proposals as these are viewed by diff people. AA.

This essay examines the arguments & evidence used in 2 recent models of the Ur crisis--Edward C. Banfield (see SA 1218/F6394) & Jay W. Forrester's URBAN DYNAMICS (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1969). Although Banfield's model is sociol'al & Forrester's is econ & physical, both imply that not much can be done to alleviate Ur problems & that positive programs may make them worse. It is contended here that the articulation of argument & evidence is inadequate to support the implication. It is advocated that promising current programs be refined on the basis of evidence & experience & that policymakers continue to search for efficient new programs through soc exp's. THE UNHEAVENLY CITY is a book in which Ur problems are caused primarily by a Lc that is not well-defined, insensitive to situational change only by assertion, & so dismal that the author has to beef it up to make it plausible as a major causal agency. In URBAN DYNAMICS Forrester's method is entirely quantitative, but he makes no attempt whatever to use data from the real world. He assumes values for the hundreds of variables used in his model & then contends that the results are insensitive to his arbitrary choice of numbers. Modified HA.

Disciplined Ur party org's, capable of controlling pot & gov in their communities, have been one of our more interesting indigenous pol'al growths. This pol'al form probably could not have arisen in the US had it not been for certain broad cultural patterns, such as the absence of strong traditional authorities. These cultural patterns were necessary but not sufficient for the growth of party machines. The immediate determinants were the org'al requirements of Ur growth, the inability of existing city gov's to meet these requirements, the presence of a market - among both business men & voters - for the services of the oldstyle politician, & the existence of free suffrage. Old-style Ur parties have declined only partly as a consequence of direct attacks on them. A variety of soc & pol'al changes have sapped the resources of old-style parties &, in many communities, have reduced voter interest in those resources still available to the parties. Further insight into the functions of old-style parties may be had by looking at certain of their present-day alternatives - the pot of nonpartisanship & new-style reform pot within the Democratic party. AA.

Der Aufsatz untersucht den Problemkomplex 'Wohnsanierung' am Beispiel einer Sanierungsmaßnahme in Boston in den Jahren 1958/59. Als zentrale Kategorie zur Erklärung der aufgetretenen erheblichen 'psychischen Beeinträchtigungen' wird die 'Gesundheit' herausgestellt, die sich als 'fundamentaler psychischer Mechanismus' in bezug auf die Wohnumgebung als 'Gefühl der räumlichen Identität' und Erfahrung der Nachbarschaft als 'soziales Gebilde' äußert. Unter Berücksichtigung dieses Ergebnisses werden sechs Thesen zur optimalen 'Durchführung von Wohnsanierungen' aufgestellt, die die 'Bindungen der Menschen an die sachlich-räumliche und personelle Umwelt' als zu schützenden Wert in den Mittelpunkt stellen. (WZ)

The traditional conception of "the" Ur problem as requiring metropolitan reform is contrasted with an alternative conception based on pol'al economy. The aim is to guide future res efforts toward ascertaining which of these theoretical structures provides a better explanation for the relationship among variables such as the size of gov units & their multiplicity in a metropolitan area, & variables such as output, efficiency, equal distribution of costs, responsibility of public officials, & citizen participation. 13 empirical studies are classified by type of Ur public service examined & data used. The need for developing agreed-upon definitions of terms & their operationalizations is discussed. Findings from a few studies are presented which challenge the empirical warrantability of the propositions of the traditional conception of metropolitan reform. A series of alternatives, utilizing type of public good or service as an intervening variable, is presented. It is found that recommendations for reforming the org of gov'al units in metropolitan areas will vary dramatically depending upon which theoretical structure provides the foundation for analysis. Evidence suggests that several of the propositions derived from the pol'al economy tradition are more useful than those from the metropolitan reform tradition. However, considerable further res is needed. 1 Table, 2 Figures. M. Maxfield.

Described is the paradigmatic shift in Ur sociology away from social organization toward a position that attempts to explain the symptoms of Ur crisis, eg: Ur riots, unemployment, fiscal crisis, a migratory labor market, etc. New Ur theory combines a holistic emphasis with a number of other characteristis, including: (1) the refusal to take Ur forms for granted; (2) an assessment of the interaction among power, consumptive, & productive structures, & of the structural basis of community activity; & (3) an awareness of social conflict as the basis of social change. Promising areas of research are designated, including the holistic integration of levels, alternative solutions to economic & political crises, social & political struggles, & analyses of the state & of public services. D. Dunseath.

The Ur gov admin'or may soon receive greater help from sci, which can provide him with informational & rational bases from which to strive for excellence. Ur interaction analysis, endproduct-oriented program budgeting, effectiveness analysis, & computerized information flow systems for planning & operating purposes hold promise for better decisions. Large-scale metropolitan consolidation has turned out to be an unlikely remedy for metropolitan problems. New voluntary forms of co-operation, made effective by state & federal financial inducements, are being proposed and tried. Many considerations point to a gov serving 100,000 to 250,000 people as being of ideal size. Because of certain fiscal considerations, the suggestion is that the federal gov should assume increasing financial responsibility for those services with major interstate benefit & cost spillovers & in which income redistribution plays an important role. By the same rule, federal financing of public housing, Ur renewal, community development, air-pollution control, Ur transportation, & water projects should be de-emphasized, except in multi-state areas. Greater assumption of financial responsibilities by the federal gov for such costly services as educ, health, & welfare should free state funds. In turn, states would be in a position to act more aggressively in guiding & aiding cities, townships, & counties. AA.

With the growing Ur'ization of the US scholars have increased their interest in cities-there are now specialized Ur subfields in sociol, pol, economics & geography. Inevitably, concern for the substance of city life involves concern for the method of inquiry. Are cities unique or can useful generalizations be made using the city as the unit of analysis? Anyone who talks about Ur structures of power comparatively must face 2 related questions: What is meant by power? How can its empirical dimensions by measured & established? The most crucial structures of policy-relevant power in the large Amer city are examined & an attempt is made partly to identify & partly to postulate a pattern of development that seems warranted by the histories & present circumstances of several cities. Necessarily, comparisons must be made among fragments of data drawn from widely diverse sources, conceptually & methodologically. The result cannot be definitive, but it may stimulate systematic res in Ur data on a comparative basis. The central role of elected pol'al leadership is stressed, as distanct from the analysis of Dahl, Hunter, Mumford, & Jacobs, through all may have a part of the truth about the convergence of power elements in the modern city. IPSA.