Nationalization of Local Politics and the Governance of Cities in the United States

Abstract

The related developments of the emergence of a national economy and the nationalization of local politics have fragmented the "traditional" local political order of American cities. This becomes apparent beginning around 1965 and especially in the 1970s. As a consequence, the cities, particularly the older cities which grew up in the nineteenth century with industrialization, have lost their rationale as centers of production to a national economy and their political agenda to the federal government. The point of departure is that the urban problem is that of governance and the problem of governance is the lack of local political organizations that can act as focal points for participation into policy. The local political system of the mid-1960s is described, certain changes since then hypothesized, and the possible development of "vertical" (neighborhood-local govern ment) linkages is discussed.