The Ecology of City Policymaking Book

Offering an important new way of analyzing urban public policy—a theoretical "life cycle" of the policy-making process in American cities—this book explains many crucial aspects of urban policy formulation: how issues emerge and get on the agendas of local governments, how policy-makers translate issues into policy, how the age of cities affects the content and process of policy-making, and how pluralist coalitions form and participate in city politics. Waste's ecology model highlights the strengths and weaknesses of current methods of dealing with problems such as crime, inadequate public schools, aging infrastructures, pollution, poverty, and toxic waste disposal. The book offers a major service to urban and policy scholars by combining theories and concerns that are generally relegated either to public policy or studies of urban politics, providing both theoretical and case-study linkage between the two areas. An important and original contribution, this book will be of great interest to all who study urban affairs or policy-making and to officials involved in public administration.

"Bristling with ideas and anecdotes..the authors succeed admirably."--Political Science Quarterly.