An Ombudsman for Cities?

Abstract

The office of Ombudsman might have some useful functions in cities, but at present a great number of people, in paid and voluntary capacities, are meeting many of the functions of the Ombudsman in defending or pleading for people against the dicta of the bureaucracy. The office of Ombudsman would not be effective in many smaller cities because of the domination of small power groups in those cities. In the larger cities, the Ombudsman could have little effect in the face of the enormous problems and basic deficiencies of the cities. A great issue in political and social life in American cities is the effort of white and Negro separatists to discard democracy and to substitute a caste system based on separatism. If this effort succeeds, no Ombudsman at any level in American society can be effective, because future decisions will be based on what the castes demand of each other, and not on the principle of abstract justice for the individual.