Book Cover
E-book
Author Oliver, J. Eric, 1966-

Title Democracy in suburbia / J. Eric Oliver
Published Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, ©2001

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Description 1 online resource (xvi, 263 pages : illustrations, maps
Series Book collections on Project MUSE
Contents Cover Page -- Half-title Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication Page -- Contents -- List of Maps and Figures -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter One: The Rise of a Suburban Demos -- Chapter Two: All Cities Great and Small -- Chapter Three: Cities of Riches and Squalor -- Chapter Four: The Civic Paradox of Racial Segregation -- Chapter Five: A Bedroom Polis -- Chapter Six: Boomtowns and the Civic Costs of Air-Conditioning -- Chapter Seven: Reform Governments and Their Aftermath -- Chapter Eight: Remaking the Democratic Metropolis
Appendix A: The Citizen Participation / Census Dataset -- Appendix B: Logistic and OLS Regression Equations for the Figures -- Appendix C: Testing the Relationship between Civic Participation and "Self-Interest Rightly Understood" -- References -- Index
Summary Suburbanization is often blamed for a loss of civic engagement in contemporary America. How justified is this claim? Just what is a suburb? How do social environments shape civic life? Looking beyond popular stereotypes, Democracy in Suburbia answers these questions by examining how suburbs influence citizen participation in community and public affairs. Eric Oliver offers a rich, engaging account of what suburbia means for American democracy and, in doing so, speaks to the heart of widespread debate on the health of our civil society. Applying an innovative, unusually rigorous mode of statistical analysis to a wealth of unique survey and census data, Oliver argues that suburbs, by institutionalizing class and racial differences with municipal boundaries, transform social conflicts between citizens into ones between political institutions. In reducing the incentives for individual political participation, suburbanization has negated the benefits of ''small town'' government and deprived metropolitan areas of valuable civic capacity. This ultimately increases prospects of serious social conflict. Oliver concludes that we must reconfigure suburban governments to allow seemingly intractable issues of common metropolitan concern to surface in local politics rather than be ignored as cross-jurisdictional. And he believes this is possible without sacrifice of local government's advantages. Scholars and students of political science, sociology, and urban affairs will prize this book for its striking findings, its revealing scrutiny of the commonplace, and its insights into how the pursuit of the American dream may be imperiling American democracy
Analysis Aristotle
Atlanta (Georgia)
Black Panthers
Bobo, Lawrence
Brehm, John
Camden (New Jersey)
Celebration (Florida)
Census of Governments (1987)
Cisneros, Henry
Danielson, Michael
Dixmoor (Illinois)
Downs, Anthony
Duany, Andres
Ehrenhalt, Alan
FIPS codes (Census Bureau)
Fair Housing Act (1968)
Frantz, Douglas
Garreau, Joel
Green Guerillas (NYC)
Guterbock, Thomas
Huckfeldt, Robert
Insight Meditation Society (Boston)
Jackson, Kenneth
Kerner Commission (1968)
Langdon, Philip
Levitt, Abraham
London, Bruce
Mansbridge, Jane
Mount Vernon (New York)
Organization Man (Whyte)
Pateman, Carole
Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth
Rusk, David
Russo, Anthony
Rybczynski, Witold
Stone, Clarence
Taylor, Marylee
Tufte, Edward
altruistic behavior
city manager government
civic capacity perspective
civic voluntarism model
classical liberal assessment
edge cities
ethnic identity
growth machine model
mayor-council governments
political party patronage
political struggle
public works
rational choice theory
urban political machines
voluntary organizations
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-253) and index
Subject Local government -- United States
Political participation -- United States
Suburbs -- United States.
Suburban life -- United States
Segregation -- United States.
Social stratification -- United States
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy
Local government
Political participation
Segregation
Social stratification
Suburban life
Suburbs
Kommunalpolitik
Sozialverhalten
Partizipation
Politische Beteiligung
Vorstadt
Vorort.
Partizipation.
Kommunalpolitik.
United States
USA
USA.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780691223360
069122336X