"Culture wars" have turned American communities into ideological battlegrounds. When issues like gay rights, needle exchange programs, abortion clinic protests, and hate crime are at stake, the response of citizens is likely to be strong--and that of local governments is likely to be unpredictable.

This collection provides alternative explanations of local actions with a focus on current conflict. A team of prominent scholars in urban politics examines how local governments handle morality-based issues: whether they evade controversies or instigate them, enact policies responsive to...

When the big ball drops on New Year's Eve, thousands are there to witness that great glittering sight, while millions more watch on national television. Times Square may be the cultural hub of America, the "Crossroads of the World," but its lights have not always shone as brightly as they do now.

Once a glamorous theater district, Times Square and 42nd Street had degenerated into a neighborhood known for the winos and sex shops of "Midnight Cowboy" until New York's business and arts communities stepped in. These advocates of urban revitalization exploited cultural and historic...

As alarming stories about new pathogens like the Ebola virus or Mad Cow Disease fill today's headlines, scientists face a test of their abilities to contain them. But public health officials face a crisis of their own, because even when effective treatments become available, efforts to control disease often fall short.

After the Cure was written to improve the prospects for effective management of AIDS and other public health crises. Martin Levin and Mary Bryna Sanger draw on cases of previous large-scale public health initiatives to show how management effectiveness can meet...

The American Statehouse examines the interplay of architecture and politics in all fifty state capitols. Using both careful analysis and photographs of exteriors and interiors, Goodsell demonstrates how the architectural elements embody political values and ideas; influence how politicians, lobbyists, and the news media behave; and both awe and unite the citizenry. He concludes that a statehouse's design is an intentional expression of how to practice politics democratically.

The American state capitol is a "statehouse" in that it was historically conceived as the center and home...

Noted tax economist Frederick C. Stocker has observed that the property tax "resembles a structure designed by a mad architect, erected on a shaky foundation by an incompetent builder, and made worse by the well-intentioned repair work of hordes of amateur tinkerers." While that may still be a popular view, Glenn Fisher suggests that the actual history of this much-maligned tax should make us less inclined to such easy ridicule.

The frequent scapegoat of rebellious taxpayers, yet essential for the functioning of modern local governments, the property tax has a long and controversial...

Why did congressional Republicans obsessively pursue the impeachment of President Bill Clinton when the 1998 midterm elections and public opinion polls suggested that the majority of Americans opposed it? Some claimed indignation over perjury, others outrage over immorality. But as Nicol Rae and Colton Campbell show, the driving force behind the impeachment was nothing less than the intensifying partisanship of American politics.

Impeaching Clinton offers a fascinating case study of how the American political system operated during the 1990s and of the critical factors underpinning the...

On the surface the new president seems to inherit an empty house," Hugh Heclo, a recognized expert on American democratic institutions, has noted. "In fact, he enters an office already shaped and crowded by other people's desires." Empowering the White House examines how Richard Nixon entered that crowded Oval Office in 1969 yet managed to change it in a way that augmented the power of the presidency and continues to influence into the twenty-first century how his successors have governed.

Nixon's White House is perhaps best remembered for the growth in the size of the staff, which...

Many of the basic issues of political science have been addressed by pluralist theory, which focuses on the competing interests of a democratic polity, their organization, and their influence on policy. Popular in the 1960s, pluralism gradually lost favor and nearly became obsolete when political scientists began to challenge its fundamental assumptions. Andrew McFarland shows, however, that this approach still provides a promising foundation for understanding the American political process.

Neopluralism draws on pluralism's foundational logic to synthesize its various strands into...

As an avenue for progressive politics in a nation still skeptical of change, community organizing today faces significant challenges. This book assesses that activity within the context of political, cultural, social, and economic changes in cities--from World War II to the present--to show how community-based organizations have responded to these challenges.

Transforming the City is the first book to examine the current state of community organizing in American cities, analyzing its place in contemporary progressive politics and assessing whether it has changed in response to...

An outstanding contribution to the growing literature in world-systems theory, Kathleen Schwartzman's study of the first Portuguese republic demonstrates the significant ways in which a nation's social and political structures are shaped by its position in the global economy.

In May 1926, a military coup ended Portugal's first turbulent, sixteen-year experiment with democracy. During that period no less than 45 prime ministers and an equal number of coalition cabinets failed to solve the nation's complex economic and political problems. Portugal and its far-reaching colonial empire...