City Politics: Private Power and Public Policy, Fourth Edition

Rating:
Summary: Policies and corruption in the city
Review: This is a good read for anyone who is interrested in the development of the city and the politics within. It opens with the birth of the city and how advances in technology led to the outward expansion of the city. One of the most interresting features is how the book describes the growth of the politcal machine in Chicago. In a later chapter, the authors then compare the fiscal policies of Chicago and New York City and how machine politics may have been the key to Chicago's success. The book also goes into detail about "white flight": the moving of the middle/upper-class sectors away from the city to settle into different types of suburbs. These suburbs then become a self-sustaining entity capable of enacting their own governmental policies which include exclusionary tactics designed to weed out those of lower incomes, certain age brackets, or those of an "unacceptable" racial background. It then goes into detail about the Court's opinion on these exclusionary policies. If you're interrested in how cities and urban politics are created then this book is a great start.

Rating:
Summary: City politics
Review: This is a pretty informative and interesting book. I would reccomend it to someone interested in persuing an education in urban politics.