Urban Politics and Policy

This course is designed to introduce students to the study of urban politics. Urban politics is an inherently interdisciplinary endeavor, and to make sense of it we will read the works of historians, sociologists, geographers, and economists as well as political scientists during the term. The first part of the course examines urban political development, with a review of some of the work that situates political analysis in historical perspective. Next, the focus turns to the question of governance, considering political cultural and regime theory approaches to the politics of building and maintaining urban governing coalitions. Governing ethnically, racially, and economically diverse regions under conditions of limited authority and with significant economic constraints (including global ones) is the story of US urban politics in contemporary times. But the tension is not a new one. So, we will investigate the relationship between politics and economics from the nation's founding until the present time to see the continuities in the urban politics narrative. Special attention will be given to the role that race has played in shaping urban politics and policies. Additionally, the concentration of vulnerable populations in inner cities has given rise to a host of public policies designed to ameliorate the conditions of American's urban centers. To what extent have those policies been effective? We will also evaluate the checkered past of federal urban policies and examine the enduring consequences these policies have had on the urban landscape. The final part of the course will zero in on selected US cities for the analysis of their specific political issues