1st Edition

Urbanization in a Federalist Context

By Roscoe Martin Copyright 1965
    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    The emergence of America as a metropolitan-urban society has had profound consequences for every phase of national life, but nowhere has its effects been greater than in the domain of government. The growth of the city and its evolution into the metro-city has led to problems more complex and intense than any previously known. These problems command the concern and resources of all governments, federal as well as state and local; for as they have gained general attention they have emerged as national problems.

    Coincident with national involvement in problems once held to be local has come a rise in federal government relations with the cities. Such relations, though in fact of long standing, have increased greatly in number and intensity since 1933. The result is a significant expansion in the practice of federalism, one marked by the emergence of the cities as partners in the federal system. Urbanization in a Federalist Context treats the expanded federal partnership in urban growth and argues that it is not a fact to be welcomed.

    Martin traces the expansion of federal authority in the United States from the 1930s through the 1960s. He shows how local issues become national issues, and also how national authority expands, affecting all aspects of location government. The developments he explores reflect a federal system in the process of constant but evolutionary growth. Martin reveals why the relationship between the federal system and metro-cities is a flexible arrangement, capable of adjusting to new demands-but not without its own risks. This classic will be of continuing interest to those concerned about the consequences of the expansion of government authority in the United States.

    l. A Nation of Cities
    The Urbanization of America
    Emergence of a New Society
    The Country and the City
    Urban Dwellers and Farm Folk
    Some Consequent Problems
    2. The American System: The Many and the One
    The Federal System
    The Place of the Cities
    The Cities and the States
    The Cities and theN ation
    Quest for Operational Effectiveness
    An Evolving Federalism
    3. Unequal Partners: The Case of the Reluctant State
    State Constitutions
    Representative Government
    Organization for Administration
    Resources
    Programs
    Horizons
    Conclusion
    4. Emergence of an Urban Partner
    Government and Civil Aviation
    The Issue of Federal Aid
    The Recipient Government Dilemma
    The Two Positions
    Congressional Action and Reaction
    The Crystallization of Policy
    5. The Expanded Partnership: Nature
    Rise of Federal-City Relations
    Three Joint Programs
    Federal-Aid Airport Program
    Urban Renewal
    Low-Rent Public Housing
    Some Observations on the Expanded Partnership
    6. Three Views of the Expanded Partnership
    Washington: The View from Above
    The Community: The View from Below
    The State House: The Midway View
    7. The Expanded Partnership: Appraisal
    Consequences Anticipated and Unanticipated
    Problems Real and Fancied
    Local Government Organization
    The Metropolitan Problem
    The Expanded Partnership and the States
    The Expanded Partnership and Democratic Government
    Index

    Biography

    Roscoe Martin