Cities as Partners in the Federal System

State Mandating of Local Government Activities: An Exploration

“…Future research efforts might fruitfully further disaggregate and specify the relationships examined here; the suggestion that there may be the dimensions of "pditical" and "administrative" centralization related to the "division of labor" arxl "exchange" relationships, respectively, may be especially useful to pursue. Additional recognition and development of the theoretical perspectives noted here (Stever, 1980;Wirt, 1980Wirt, , 1985Thomas, 1986;Stonecash, 1981b;Stein, 1982), along with improved measures and methods (Neiman and Lovell, 1981) to study the appropriate phenomena are also necessary to a better understanding of American federalism and intergovernmental relations. These seem especially necessary to understanding mandating, an increasingly significant issue in state-local relations.…”

“…In the 39th Federaiist, Madison argued that the new American constitution was national in its "operation" and federal in its "extent." And Thomas (1986) has recently suggested the need to understand the cities' roie in the larger political system as a tension between Lockean/Jeffersonian and Madisonian perspectives.…”

Law and the Possibilities for a Just Urban Political Economy

“…It is thus not surprising that critics are suspicious of the normative and empirical dimensions of Peterson's work. They point out the danger of I Law and a Just Urban political Economy 1 3 a theory that excises the ideological and political content from urban policymaking (Peterson, 1981, p. 4) and fails to acknowledge that all governmental decisions produce losers and winners (Stone & Sanders, 1987;Domhoff, 1986;Thomas, 1986;Muzzio & Bailey, 1986;Swanstrom, 1985;Fainstein & Fainstein, 1983). Elkin (1987, Chs.…”

The U.S. Congress and American Federalism: Are 'Subnational' Governments Protected?

“…Whether such behavior is necessarily contrary to federalism principles is unclear, for state and local governments may be strengthened in certain ways (cf. Wirt 1985;Thomas 1986). This is not to suggest that there may not be something beyond constituency-based interests which are distinct and identifiable as state (and/or local) interests.…”

“…It may also indicate that federalism remains an ambiguous concept and is probably a primarily instrumental value in that it is weighed in terms of the extent to which it facilitates other values or interests (cf. Thomas 1986).…”