Dilemmas of Scale in America’s Federal Democracy

Nationalist and local traditions vie within the American federal system and the American experiment with self-government. Bringing together contributions from history, political science and sociology, this book focuses primarily on the local, seeking to recapture its origins, explain its current impact and assess its worth.

List of tables; Acknowledgments; Foreword Michael J. Lacey; Introduction Martha Derthick; Part I. Citizenship and Local Self-Government: 1. City life and citizenship James Q. Wilson; 2. Citizen and city: locality, public-spiritedness and the American regime Stephen L. Elkin; Part II. Local Self-Government in American Political History: 3. The origins and influence of early American local self-government: Democracy in America reconsidered Pauline Maier; 4. Localism, political parties and civic virtue Sidney M. Milkis; 5. How many communities? The evolution of American federalism Martha Derthick; 6. Local practice in transition: from government to governance Kathryn M. Doherty and Clarence N. Stone; Part III. The Place of Locality in Current Policy Choice: 7. The ideo-logics of urban land-use politics Alan A. Altshuler; 8. Local government and environmental policy Marc K. Landy; 9. Local self-government in education: community, citizenship and charter schools Gregory R. Weiher and Chris Cookson; 10. Net gains: the Voting Rights Act and Southern local government Richard M. Valelly; 11. The people's court? Federal judges and criminal justice William D. Hagedorn and John J. DiIulio Jr; Afterword: federalism and community Philip Selznick; Contributors; Index.