State and Local Government

According to the author, in the 1970s greater pressures than ever to perform effectively may be directed toward the American political system. State and local government are no exception, their tasks ate even greater, since their viability as governing units in contemporary society is itself being questioned. In this book the emphasis is placed on a study of the political process as a method by which individual wants, which become social wants, are met by government and accepted or rejected, and sociopolitical policies emerge as imperfect compromises among the conflicting claims, interest, and wants of citizens and organized political, economic, or social groups. The college student who wishes to become an active, or at least a reasonably well-informed, citizen must understand something about the process of governmental decision making before he can hope to have a significant influence upon its policy decisions. And that process, at the state and local levels, is extraordinarily complex. The approach in this edition is eclectic rather than wedded to a particular method or discipline. It still seeks to integrate social and economic factors with the political. And it still concentrates upon providing the student with a basis for political analysis rather than a manual of prescriptions.