Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:30:48.370Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Is Anything Enough?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2022

Extract

Is anything enough? The authors of this forum are in agreement that the political incorporation of blacks and Hispanics achieved thus far is not enough. Not only is protest not enough: they question whether any of the political arrangements by which members of these groups have been brought into city governments are sufficient to meet the goals of the civil rights movement—political equality and the alleviation of poverty. They have much to say about ways in which the incorporation of blacks and Hispanics falls short and about the conditions that block further strengthening of their position.

Is any theory enough—the theory of Protest Is Not Enough, in particular? The answer to the particular question is partly Yes, but the articles of this forum suggest qualifications and additions; we discuss these below. There are two answers to the general question, both of them No. No, because a theory of variations across cities does not fully meet the need for an understanding of possibilities or of leadership, agenda, and strategy over time in a particular city. And No, because the largest cities must be understood on their own terms, as we would seek to understand a nation or a war on its own terms.

Nevertheless, a theoretical structure of the sort in Protest is useful to practitioners and researchers because it focuses attention on a limited number of main factors and relationships, permits systematic and standardized comparisons between groups of cities, provides a way to summarize the main structure of causal factors and conditions in a given city, and allows us to estimate the levels of minority mobilization and incorporation and of governmental responsiveness that we should expect in a city on the basis of the experience in other cities.

Type
Minority Power in City Politics
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chubb, John E. and Peterson, Paul E., eds. 1985. The New Directions in American Politics. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Eisinger, Peter K. 1980. Politics of Displacement: Racial and Ethnic Transition in Three American Cities. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Fainstein, Susan S. et al. 1983. Restructuring the City: The Political Economy of Urban Redevelopment. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Charles. 1979. The Patron-Client Relationship in Minority Politics in New York City. Political Science Quarterly 95:211228.10.2307/2149848CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joint Center for Political Studies. 1985. Black Elected Officials: A National Roster. New York: Unpub.Google Scholar
National Association of Latino Elected Officials. 1986. The National Roster of Hispanic Elected Officials. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Peterson, Paul E. 1981. City Limits. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226922645.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, Paul E., ed. 1985. The New Urban Reality. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Shefter, Martin. 1985. Political Crisis/Fiscal Crisis: The Collapse and Revival of New York City. New York: Basic Books, Inc. Google Scholar
Stone, Clarence N., Whelan, Robert K., and Murin, William J. 1986. Urban Policy and Politics in a Bureaucratic Age, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Google Scholar