The Consequences of Shifting Control: Federal and State Distribution of Small Cities CDBG Funds in Four Southern States

Following the shift of the Small Cities Community DevelopmentBlock Grant program in 1982 from federal to state control, foursouthern states—Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and NorthCarolina—adopted policies intended to reduce, if not eliminate,the federal emphasis on housing rehabilitation and other activitiesthat benefit lower income groups. These states now emphasizepublic works projects, which benefit a broader spectrum of thepopulation, as well as policies designed to spread funds broadlyacross communities. As a result, the share of funds going tosmaller communities has increased substantially. States alsoappear to be allocating fewer funds to poorer communities thandid federal officials, although to date the difference is notsubstantial.     

Selling CDBG Housing Rehab Loans in the Private Sector

The author examines three cities that have sold a portion of their CDBG housing rehabilitation loan portfolio to secondary mortgage markets and private banks to secure additional capital for their revolving loan funds. Through case studies, the article focuses on some of the key issues in these sales including discounting, assumption of default risk, and loan documentation. It is concluded that such markets may become of increasing importance in the future as a source for augmenting declining public sector funds.     

Devolution of the Small Cities CDBG Program in Mississippi

In 1982 responsibility for HUD's Small Cities Community DevelopmentBlock Grant program was transferred to state governments aspart of President Reagan's New Federalism initiatives. Devolutionwas designed to (1) implement a new vision of American federalism,(2) shift control over a significant source of financial resourcesfor nonmetropolitan areas, and (3) end the bypassing of stategovernment officials in community development decisionmaking.This article uses the eleven year (1975–1985) historyof Small Cities CDBG awards in Mississippi to assess the consequencesof the program's devolution. Changes in the pattern of stateCDBG awards indicate that the program's devolution produceda policy redirection that channeled CDBG funds to a larger numberof the smallest municipalities and permitted more local discretionin project design. As a result, HUD no longer dictated communitydevelopment policy to small cities. Instead, community developmentpriorities in Mississippi emerged out of an award process thatinvolved interaction among state and local officials.     

Urban Regimes, Sports Stadiums, and the Politics of Economic Development Agendas in Chicago

Sports issues have increasingly become prominent items on the urban policy agenda. Most demands for sports-related policies have been woven into the general fabric of economic development in the community. in this article, the authors examine the issues surrounding sports stadium development in Chicago from 1985–90. An urban regime framework, based on the notion of governing coalitions, is used to analyze the incorporation of stadiums into Chicago's policy agenda during these years. The article is instructive of the way in which progressive city administrations have used the regime to mediate corporate demands for the often intangible benefits of sports.     

The Color of Devolution: Race, Federalism, and the Politics of Social Control

In this article, we seek to advance scholarship on the origins and consequences of policy devolution by analyzing state decisions to give local authorities control over welfare policy. The first part of our analysis explores the political forces that systematically influence state decisions to cede policy control to lower-level jurisdictions. In this context, we propose a general Racial Classification Model of how race influences social policy choice. Our findings support this model as well as social control perspectives on welfare provision. Building on these results, we then show how modest but consistent racial effects on policy choices concatenate to produce large disparities in the overall policy regimes that racial groups encounter in the federal system. The empirical findings illuminate the fundamental role that federalism plays in the production of contemporary racial disparities and in the recent turn toward neoliberal and paternalist policies in American poverty governance.     

Commentary: The Politics of Distrust

Abstract

Scholars have recently begun to study civil society on the regional level more systematically. When regionalization of civil society is studied, it is often understood within processes of regional governance in which state actors craft regional institutions and policy frameworks to solve common problems. Yet, most studies dealing with civil society in regional governance have a state-centric approach, focusing on the marginalization of civil society organizations (CSOs) in such processes, treating them as rather passive actors. This is especially true for research on southern Africa. Contrary to previous studies, this article shows under what circumstances CSOs are granted space in regional policy-making related to the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It is concluded that, in light of CSOs' material and economic weakness, one of the key factors determining their advocacy success on the regional level is production of knowledge and strategic use of communication tools. Even though many challenges remain, for example, the power structures inherent in the SADC, the case of civil society advocacy around the SADC is a sign of a new form of participatory regional governance in the making, which is more democratic than present modes of regional governance in Africa.     

Applicant Perceptions of State Priorities in the Illinois Small Cities CDBG Program: Implications for Local Targeting

The State of Illinois has targeted economic development as amajor priority in the Small Cities Community Development BlockGrant program, although the state still accepts applicationsfor public facilities and housing rehabilitation. This articleexamines the impact of this state priority on the applicationbehavior of small cities. We find that grant applicants perceivethat the state's economic development emphasis decreases theirability to be successful in obtaining housing rehabilitationgrants. This perception has had an impact on subsequent applicationbehavior. Cities no longer apply for grants that are most likelyto benefit directly those with low and moderate incomes.     

Where Judicial Politics Are Legislative Politics: The French Constitutional Council

Judges on France's ordinary and administrative courts make law and policy by interpreting and applying statutes, but the Constitutional Council is overtly involved in policy‐making. The Council serves as a type of ‘third’ chamber of the French parliament, where it may annul unconstitutional legislation, ‘constitu‐tionalise’ various legal principles, and sometimes even prescribe the precise terms of legislation. This ‘court‐like’ body, thus, plays a significant and growing role in French policy‐making.     

The Politics of Studying Politics: Political Science Since the 1960s

The field of political science has undergone significant change since the 1960s. The major shift was toward far greater quantification in the scholarly analyses. That movement sparked enduring controversies. These include disputes pitting scientific detachment against political relevance; specialization against accessibility; and quantitative against qualitative analysis. This article traces the contours of these controversies and offers some reflections on the discipline’s possible future.     

Introduction: The Progressive Dilemma in British Politics

This special edition reflects on the contemporary relevance of the insights and concerns of David Marquand's book The Progressive Dilemma. In this Introduction, the editors set the scene for these reflections. They consider the structural changes that have occurred in politics since the 1990s: the impact of globalisation, the erosion of class identities, the rise of ‘identity politics’ and the continued fragmentation of the party system. There has been no reconciliation between the parties of the centre‐left, nor any re‐examination of the ‘liberal tradition’ and the potential for a new synthesis with revisionist social democracy. On the one hand, Corbynism is a radicalised metropolitan species of liberalism, while on the other there are plenty in Labour who stress the need for the party to re‐engage with the traditional, socially conservative values of the working class in a new ‘postliberal’ appeal. Yet the authors argue that those who broadly identify with progressive causes in British politics—animated by the various overlapping strands of social liberalism, social democracy and liberal socialism—have still to work out how to address the historic failings that Marquand so eloquently exposed, to create a new and inspiring intellectual vision that unites and energises the left and centre‐left.     

Administrative Error Control: The Role of Value-Based HR Practices,I-Deals,and Organizational Politics

Value-based HR practices, which cultivate public values in public employees, may activate employee’s upward negotiations with the employer to go beyond administrative norms and constraints. The primary research aim is to assess the role of value-based HR practices in fostering idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) among public employees, which in turn contribute to the effectiveness of administrative error control. The research also investigates whether organizational politics undermines the momentum of i-deals in public employees. The source of data for the research includes the responses from public employees and their direct supervisors from People’s Committees of Wards—the grassroots level of government—in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The data were then analyzed using structural equation modeling. Through the research findings, the effect chain from value-based HR practices through i-deals to administrative error control was confirmed. The negative effect of organizational politics on i-deals was also grounded in the data analysis.     

Coordination in Youth Affairs: The Politics of Non-Decision-Making

One of the components associated with the widely heralded shift to 'new managerialism' in the public sector has been an increased emphasis on coordination between government departments as a means to enhance effective service provision. This article examines the capacity for coordination to fulfil this objective. Drawing upon a case study of coordination in youth affairs in Western Australia, the article examines the process by which the coordination mechanisms become enveloped in the 'politics of non-decision-making'. By this is meant that a set of power relationships create tensions at a number of levels — between commonwealth and state government agencies; between state government agencies and within individual agencies — which act to prevent effective decisions from being taken. The implications of this case study for the capacity of 'new managerialism' to produce effective policy outcomes in complex social policy areas is highlighted. Evidence from this study suggests that, in an era of restricted resources and heightened competition within the public sector, agencies are pushed to more clearly define their boundaries.