POS410:
Governing American Cities
Spring Semester 2005
Course Outline
Professor Marilyn Dantico, Ph.D. Office: Coor 6764
Phone: 480-965-1316 e-mail:
mdantico@asu.edu
Overview: This course provides a review of the development of
American cities. It provides exposure to
the various ways that cities have been studied.
Developing an organizing theme for the study of cities is something that
we will try to do during this course. To
that end, we will review some of the themes that exist, and conduct research in
an effort to determine which theme, if any, is most useful.
To better understand the
distribution of power and the tensions that confront modern American cities, we
will have explicit discussions of (a) racial and ethnic divides, (b) the relationships
between government (and public purposes) and private economic interests, and
(c) the needs and goals of elected officials and public sector managers.
To the extent possible, we
will operate on a seminar format. That
means that we will rely on individual student participation more than on
lectures. As a gauge of preparedness,
there will be three quizzes. These will occur on February 11th,
March 4th, and April 1st (no kidding). Assigned readings, class discussion, or other
presentation material will be covered.
We will take a close look at fifteen
(15) American cities. We will look at their
political structures, at their racial/ethnic
composition, their growth/decline, their educational system, and the policy
issues that drive each of them. To this
end, each member of the class will select a city from the list posted on the Discussion section of Blackboard. No more
than four (4) people will be allowed to work on any city. It is first come, first served. If you are planning to make yourself the 5th
person to sign up for a city, reconsider.
Within the next few weeks, we
will post a number of questions on Blackboard.
You will find the answers to those questions for the city you have
selected, and you will post the answers in the Discussion section of Blackboard.
This information search should help you participate in class
discussions, and critique the assigned readings. Ultimately, you will prepare a written
assignment based on the posted information.
Precise instructions and due dates will be posted on Blackboard.
Each student will read and
review a journal article or report focused on a problem facing American
cities. The options will be posted on
Blackboard. Please sign up for the article/report
you will read, as you will make a summary report in class. Again, no more than four people per
article.
Course grades will be based
on performance on quizzes (30%), timeliness and accuracy of your city postings
(20%), individual written assignment on cities (20%), and article/report summary
(in class presentation = 15%; written = 15%).
Regular class attendance and informed participation in class discussions
may improve your final grade. Late
assignments are penalized one letter grade per day.
Required
City Politics: Private Power and
Public Policy
Dennis
Judd and Todd Swanstrom
Plunkitt of
Tammany Hall
William
Riordon
Amy Klobuchar
Political
Change in the Metropolis
John Harrigan
and Ronald Vogel
Preliminary
January 19th – January 28th: Introduction, overview.
If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a
village;
If you would know and not be known, live in a
city.
Prepare
to discuss: Judd and Swanstrom, Chapters 1 and 2.
Harrison and Vogel, Chapters 1 and 2.
February 1 – February 11: Machines, that peculiarly
American organization.
Damn your principles! Stick to your party!
I think that democratic
communities have a natural taste for freedom; left to themselves, they will
seek it, cherish it, and view any privation of it with regret.
But for equality their
passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, invincible;
they call for equality in
freedom;
and if they cannot obtain that,
they will call for equality in slavery.
They will endure poverty,
servitude, barbarism, but they will not endure aristocracy.
Tocqueville
Prepare
to discuss: Judd and Swanstrom, Chapter 3.
Riordon,
Entire book.
Harrigan and Vogel, Chapters 3 and
4.
February 14 – 25: Reform and
modernization.
There is no worse heresy than that the office
sanctifies the holder of it.
If you ask me, “Why should not the people make their
own laws?”
I need only ask you, “Why should the people not write
their own plays?”
They cannot.
It is much easier to write a good play than to make a
good law.
And there are not a hundred men (sic) in the world who
can write a play good enough to
stand the daily
wear and tear as long as a law must.
Shaw
Prepare to discuss:
Judd and Swanstrom,
Chapters 4.
Harrigan and Vogel, Chapter 4. and
5
February 28th – March 11th: Modern cities.
Anybody can be good in the country.
There are no temptations there.
With the loss of tradition we have lost
the thread which safely guided us
through the vast
realms of the past, but this thread was also the chain
fettering each
successive generation to a predetermined aspect of the past.
It could be that only now will the past
open up to us with unexpected freshness
and tell us
things that no one has as yet had ears to hear.
Hannah
Arendt
Nomos I:
Authority
Prepare to discuss: Judd
and Swanstron, Chapters 5, 6 and 7.
Harrison
and Vogel, Chapter 6 and 7.
March 21st – April 1st: Modern
problems.
As a remedy to life in society, I would suggest the
big city.
Nowadays it is the only desert within our reach.
Prepare to discuss:
Judd and Swanstrom,
Chapters 8 through 12.
Harrison
and Vogel, Chapter 8.
April 4th – 15th: Modern
solutions.
We neglect our cities to our peril,
For in neglecting them we neglect the nation.
Prepare
to discuss: Judd and Swanstrom, Chapters 12 through 15.
Harrison and
Vogel: Chapters 9 – 12.
April 18th: Cooperation?
What is the city but the people?
Prepare to discuss: Klobuchar.