In "The New Constitutionalism," seven distinguished scholars develop an innovative perspective on the power of institutions to shape politics and political life.
Believing that constitutionalism needs to go beyond the classical goal of limiting the arbitrary exercise of political power, the contributors argue that it should-and can-be designed to achieve economic efficiency, informed democratic control, and other valued political ends. More broadly, they believe that political and social theory needs to turn away from the negativism of critical theory to consider how a good society...

Stephen L. Elkin deftly combines the empirical and normative strands of political science to make a powerfully original statement about what cities are, can, and should be. Rejecting the idea that two goals of city politics equality and efficiency are opposed to one another, Elkin argues that a commercial republic could achieve both. He then takes the unusual step of addressing how the political institutions of the city can help to form the kind of citizenry such a republic needs.
The present workings of American urban political institutions are, Elkin maintains, characterized by a close...

This book was originally published in 1974. At the time of publication, studies of the politics of planning generally emphasized the difficulties planning agencies face and the way in which political patterns impede planning efforts. This view particularly characterized the analysis of city planning in the United States. London presented a different picture and this study sought to analyze the nature of the differences, their sources and their consequences. The principal focus is on political patterns and planning in London as they appeared in the post-war period up until the middle sixties....

James Madison is the thinker most responsible for laying the groundwork of the American commercial republic. But he did not anticipate that the propertied class on which he relied would become extraordinarily politically powerful at the same time as its interests narrowed. This and other flaws, argues Stephen L.Elkin, have undermined the delicately balanced system he constructed. In "Reconstructing the Commercial Republic," Elkin critiques the Madisonian system, revealing which of its aspects have withstood the test of time and which have not.
The deficiencies Elkin points out provide the...