Book Reviews : The Roots of Urban Discontent: Public Policy,Municipal Institutions and the Ghetto By PETER H. ROSSI,RICHARD A. BERK and BETTYE K. ELSDON (London,John Wiley & Sons,1974). xxvx + 499pp. £8.00

Quoted in Robert L. Allen , Black Awakening in Capitalist America (New York, 1969), p. 139.

Cf. Robert A. Dahl's statement that: 'With all its defects, it [the American political system] does nonetheless provide a high probability that any active and legitimate group will make itself heard effectively at some stage in the process of decisions. This is no mean thing in a political system,' in Preface to Democratic Theory, (Chicago, 1963),p.150.

For a very different view of decision-making in San Francisco, see Danny Beagle, Al Haber and David Wellman , 'Creative Capitalism and Urban Redevelopment', in David M. Gordon (ed.), Problems in Political Economy: An Urban Perspective (Lexington, Mass., 1971), pp. 400-4. Discussing problems of urban redevelopment, the authors document their conclusion that 'These problems, too pressing to be left to the politics of popular democracy, have prompted the business leadership of San Francisco to assume the role of social planners and technocratic guardians.' The group controlling urban development included representatives of the Zellerback Paper Company, the Bank of America, Bechtel, Pacific Telephone, Pacific Gas and Electric, Standard Oil, Levi Strauss, the American Trust Company, Magnin's (a large downtown retailer — a 'major merchant') and Matson Navigation. Representatives of black organized groups are noticeable by their absence! For a broader view of this question, see Michael Parenti , 'Power and Pluralism: A View from the Bottom', Journal of Politics, 32 (1970), pp. 501-30.

See Michael Parenti , Democracy for the Few (New York, 1974), especially chapters 6 and 7, for a discussion of this question. See also Harold Baron , 'The Web of Urban Racism' in L.L. Knowles and K. Prewitt (eds.), Institutional Racism in America ( Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1969 Prentice-Hall ).

See A. Sivanandan , Race and Resistance: The I.R.R. Story (London, 1974), for an analysis of the role of Ford and other foundations in shaping and using independent academics in the interests of monopoly capital. See also, North American Congress on Latin America, Subliminal Warfare: The Role of Latin American Studies (New York, 1971); David Horowitz , 'Social Science or Ideology?' Social Policy (Vol. 1, No. 3, September-October 1970), pp. 30-6, for other discussions of the role of the foundations.

Michael Parenti , 'The Possibilities for Political Change', Politics and Society, 1 (November, 1970), p.79.