Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta, 1946-1988 Book

Almost as disappointing as "Who Governs." This is supposed to be another contemporary classic in urban political science, yet the majority of the book is spent name-dropping other writers, "weighing" their theories without providing any of their evidence, and then coming up with some airy-fairy phrases on "regimes" and "governing coalitions" and "the social production of power," as if phrases were theories and facts were an annoyance. Its overaching hypothesis, that urban politics is dominated by a "regime" that is formed by a governing coalition of often antagonistic interests, is at once both common-sensical and impossible to prove. This perhaps explains its appeal to post-modern poli-sci nerds.

At least, unlike "Who Governs," it tries to give a real history of the city. I didn't know that Atlanta mirrored DC's "Advisory Neighborhood Councils" and New York's "Community Boards" with its own "Neighborhood Planning Units," and that each city formed these circa 1973. Also, who knew that former Carter ambassador to the UN and Atlanta mayor Andrew Young dressed up as a panhandler to discover what it felt like.