Pos 410 Urban Government/SBS 453 Urban Political Change

Professor Manuel Avalos
Arizona State University West
Fall 1995

Course Description

This course will introduce the student to the general topic of urban political economy. Specifically this course will emphasize a political economy approach to the study of urban political and social change. The course will analyze social and political and racial inequality in urban metropolitan areas by examining: 1) the development of urban cities; 2) the interaction between the political and economic structures of urban cities; and 3) the urban crises in American cities (e.g., urban decline, urban fragmentation, fiscal stress, ghettoization, poverty, unemployment)

.Course Requirements

This course is designed to incorporate both lectures and discussion. At various times during the semester we will engage in a general classroom discussion of certain topics and readings in the course. The student's major obligation in this class will be to keep up with the weeks readings and to participate in the class discussion.

Papers

Each student will be required to write a 15-20 page policy analysis paper on a urban policy problem. Topics for this paper will be chosen by the student in consultation with the instructor. Your policy analysis paper will include the following:1. Define an urban social problem. Provide background information the reader needs to appreciate the debate over what to do about it.2. Identify the objectives to be achieved by the ideal solution. Give the sources of these criteria.3. Identify alternative policies that have been proposed as solutions to the problem. Tell what is distinct about each program or approach.4. Explain how each alternative relates to the objective. Would it increase or decrease the amount of each objective? Can you calculate the degree to which it increases or decreases that amount? Consider the alternatives as independent variables and the objectives as dependent variables. A variance in the former will produce a variance in the later.5. Weight the objectives. Explain the importance of each criterion. State the facts and assumptions on which the weighing is based.6. Select the best alternative or combination of alternatives. Explain why one policy or subset of policies is the optimum choice.7. Conclude with a list of references cited. (You must list at least 6 references from scholarly journals)

Plagiarism

This is a class designed to teach you how to do original research. The worst possible thing you can do is to turn in someone else's work as your own. In the long run it penalizes you (because you have not developed a useful skill) and in the short run it penalizes classmates who are judged on the same scale or curve. I will not tolerate plagiarism! If you are caught doing it you will fail this course and appropriate university disciplinary action will be taken against you. Please do not do it. It is more obvious than you think and easy to prove. Please take time and read the handout on plagiarism, it is for your own good. If you are still unsure about properly citing the work of others as you are writing your proposal please come to see me about it

.Exams

There will be three take-home essay exams in the course.

Required Readings

The following books are required for this course and are available at the bookstore.

Steven Erie, Rainbow's End, 1988

Joel Garreau, Edge City, 1988

Paul Kantor, The Dependent City, Revisited, 1995

Thomas Muller, Immigrants and the American City, 1993

Alejandro Portes and Alex Stepick, City on the Edge, 1993

Grades

Final grades in this course will be based on your midterm and final exams. Final grades will be calculated in the following manner:

Policy Analysis Paper -- 40 percent of final grade

Essay Exams (3) 60 percent of final grade

Course Topics

I. Historical Development of Urban Cities

A. The Urban Crises in Historical Perspective

Required Readings:

Erie, Chapts. 1-3

Muller, Chapts. 1, 2

Cole, D., Silko, L., Kadetsky, E. and Kwong, P. 1994. "The Immigration Wars," The Nation (October):411-425
Davis, M. 1988. "Los Angeles: Civil Liberties between the Hammer and the Rock," New Left Review 170: 37-

B. Approaches to the Study of Urban Politics

Required Readings:

Molotch, Harvey. 1993. "The Political Economy of Growth Machines," Journal of Urban Affairs 15:29-

C. Urban Government Structure: Machine, Reform and Post Reform Politics

Required Readings:

Erie, Chapts. 4-7

Muller, Chapt. 3

Portes and Stepick, Preface, Chapt.1

Bennet, L. 1993. "Harold Washington and the Black Urban Regime," Urban Affairs Quarterly 28:423-440

Suggested Readings:

Manuel Castells, The Urban Question, 1979, Parts I, II, and III

Louis Mumford, The City in History, 1961

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961

Robert Caro, The Power Broker, 1975

Robert Dahl, Who Governs, 1961

Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah, 1956

Rexford Tugwell, The Brains Trust, 1968

Michael Peter Smith, The City and Social Theory, 1979

John Mollenkopf, The Contested City, 1983

William Grimshaw, Bitter Fruit, 1992

II. Urban Structure and the Urban Economy

A. Urban Government Systems

Readings:

Kantor, Chapt. 1-2

Garreau, Intro, Chapt. 1

Portes and Stepick, Chapts 2-3

B. Urban Finance and the Fiscal Crises (Sept. 28-30)

Readings:

Kantor, Chapts. 3-4

Davis, M. 1994. "Death and Taxes: The Sky Falls on Compton," The Nation 259 (8): 268-

C. The Politics of Suburbanization and Municipal Incorporation

Required Readings:

Kantor, Chapt. 5

Garreau, Chapts. 6-8

Suggested Readings:

John Logan and Harvey Molotch, Urban Fortunes, 1987

Michael Peter Smith, City, State and Market, 1988

Clarence Stone, Regime Politics, 1989

Stephen Elkins, City and Regime in the American Republic, 1987

Paul Peterson, City Limits, 1981

Douglas Yates, The Ungovernable City, 1978

Gary Miller, Cities by Contract, 1981

Terry Clark, and Lorna Ferguson, City Money, Political Processes, Fiscal Strain and Political Retrenchment, 1983

Todd Swanstrom, The Crisis of Growth Politics, 1985

Ira Katznelson, City Trenches, 1981

Mark Schneider, The Competitve City: The Political Economy of Suburbia, 1989

Robert Stein, Urban Alternatives, 1990

Jon Teaford, City and Suburb, 1979

Albert Hirschman, Exit, Voice and Loyalty, 1970

III. The Contemporary Urban Condition

A. Urban Decline in Industrial Cities

Required Readings:

Kantor, Chapts 6-7

Garreau, Chapts. 2-4

Portes and Stepick, Chapts. 4-5

Suggested Readings:

Mike Davis, City of Quartz, 1990

Katherine Bradbury, A. Downs and K. Small, Urban Decline, 1982

Paul Peterson, ed., The New Urban Reality, 1985

Gary Orfield and Carole Ashkinaze, The Closing Door, 1991

Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison , The Deindustrialization of America, 1980

Bennet Harrison and Barry Bluestone, The Great U-Turn, 1988

Roger Friedland, Power and Crises in the City, 1982

David Harvey, Social Justice and the City, 1973

Martin Shefter, Political Crises/Fiscal Crises: The Collapse and Revival of New York City, 1987

B. The Politics of Neighborhood Revitalization and Gentrification

Required Readings

Kantor, Chapts. 8-9

Muller, Chapt. 4

Portes and Stepick, Chapt. 6

Robinson, T. 1995. "Gentrification and Grassroots Resistance In San Francisco's Tenderloin," Urban Affairs Review 30: 483-513

Suggested Readings:

Susan Fainstein et. al., Restructuring the City, 1986

Anthony Downs, Neighborhoods and Urban Development, 1981

Kathryn Nelson, Gentrification and Distressed Cities, 1988

Neil Smith, Peter Williams ed., Gentrification of the City, 1986

C. Urban Development and the Industrial Political Economy

Required Readings:

Kantor, Chapt. 10

Garreau, Chapt. 5, 9, 10

Suggested Readings:

Jon Teaford, The Rough Road to Renaissance, 1990

Karen Zukin, Landscapes of Power, 1991

David Harvey, Consciousness and the Urban Experience, 1985

Neil Smith, Uneven Development, 1984

D. Urban Segregation and Ghettoization and Violence

Required Readings:

Portes and Stepick, Chapts 7-8.

Morrison, P. and I. Lowry. 1995. "A Riot of Color: The Demographic Setting, " in Mark Baldassare ed., The Los Angeles Riots. Boulder: Westview Press. pp. 19-45.

Davis. M. 1992. "Urban America Sees Its Future: In L.A. Burning All Illusions," The Nation 254: 743-

Suggested Readings:

Mark Baldassare ed., The Los Angeles Riots, 1994

Raphael Sonenshein, Politics in Black and White,

1993 Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton, American Apartheid,

1993 Goldster and Hill, The Metropolis in Black and White,

1992 Harvey Molotch, Managed Integration, 1972

Arnold Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto, 1985

Kenneth Clark, Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power, 1965

St. Clair Drake and Horace Clayton, Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City, 1945

Karl E. Taueber and Alma F. Taueber, Negroes in Cities: Residential Segregation and Neighborhood Change, 1965

Christopher Jencks and Paul Peterson, The Urban Underclass, 1991

E. Poverty and Unemployment in Urban Cities

Required Readings:

Muller, Chapts. 5-8

Portes and Stepick, Chapts. 9, Postscript

Davis M. 1993. "Who Killed L.A.? A Political Autopsy," New Left Review 197: 3-

Davis M. 1993. "Who Killed Los Angels? Part Two: The Verdict is Given," New Left Review 199:29-

Suggested Readings:

Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, Regulating the Poor, 1971

Edward Banfield, The Unheavenly City Revisited, 1968

Douglas Glasgow, The Black Underclass, 1980

William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged, 19887

Michael Katz, The Underserving Poor, 1989

Christopher Jencks, Inequality, 1972