scholarly journals "Leave the Fads to the Yankees"

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-84
Author(s):  
Patricia Petersen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
The United States ◽  
City Government ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
City Manager ◽  
Legislative Authority ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City

Does the border between the United States and Canada make a difference? To a political scientist it does for the obvious reason: the border defines two different political entities with different forms of government, different political customs and conventions. Two attempts in the first thirty years of the twentieth century to change the structure of the government of the City of Toronto illustrate the difference the border can make. The two proposals, commission government and city manager government, had originated with municipal reformers in the United States during the Progressive Era. The main idea behind both plans was to concentrate the executive and legislative authority in one governing unit. Commission and city manager government, however, attracted only a few supporters in the City despite their extreme popularity in the United States. City government in Toronto was not considered as bad as the government in those cities in the United States that had changed to new forms. Moreover, the proposals were American innovations and Toronto politicians were wary of American fads, especially ones like these which were drawn "from the uncertain spheres of political theory."

scholarly journals Book Review | George Will’s Conservatism and Democracy in Crisis

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
The United States ◽  
James Madison ◽  
American Government ◽  
Federalist Papers ◽  
The Federalist ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Federalist Papers

Americans typically view the United States as a democracy and are rightly proud of that. Of course, as those of a more precise nature, along with smug college students enrolled in introductory American government classes, are quick to point out, the United States is technically a republic. This is a bit too clever by half since James Madison, in The Federalist Papers, defined a republic the way most people think of a democracy—a system of representative government with elections: “[The]… difference between a Democracy and a Republic are, first the delegation of the Government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest.” What the framers thought of as democracy is today referred to as direct democracy, the belief that citizens should have more direct control over governing. The Athenian assembly was what the framers, Madison in particular, saw as the paragon of direct democracy—and as quite dangerous. While direct democracy has its champions, most Americans equate democracy with electing officials to do the business of government.

American Democracy Reconsidered: Part I

1973 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Government ◽  
The State ◽  
City Government ◽  
State Governments ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One

In his celebrated study of American democracy written in 1888, Lord Bryce reserved his most condemnatory reflections for city government and in a muchquoted passage asserted: ‘There is no denying that the government of cities is the one conspicuous failure of the United States. The deficiencies of the National government tell but little for evil on the welfare of the people. The faults of the State governments are insignificant compared with the extravagance, corruption and mismanagement which mark the administration of most of the great cities'sangeetha.

History, Romance, and the Novel

2019 ◽  
pp. 154-170
Author(s):  
Gretchen J. Woertendyke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Herman Melville ◽  
Nathaniel Hawthorne ◽  
Edgar Allan Poe ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Washington Irving ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Government ◽  
Conjectural History

This chapter traces Charles Brockden Brown’s theories of romance, history, and the novel, from his earliest fictional-historical essays, “The Rhapsodist” (1789), “Walstein’s School of History” (1799), and “The Difference between History and Romance” (1800); to Wieland; or, The Transformation (1798) and Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker (1799); to An Address to the Government of the United States (1803) and “Annals of Europe and America” (1807–1810). For Brown, romance is a form of conjectural history, true because of its imaginative range beyond the limitations of the novel’s verisimilitude. The future-oriented romance is especially suited to the local and regional conditions of the United States and uniquely connected to the geography of the nation. Brown’s influence can be found in later writers of romance, such as Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville.

The Usurped Powers of the Senate

1906 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Maurice Low
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Constitutional Government ◽  
Legislative Authority ◽  
The People ◽  
The Federalist ◽  
The Government ◽  
As If

A century of constitutional government in the United States has served to emphasize the wisdom of Hamilton's warning of “the tendency of the legislative authority to absorb every other.” He clearly foresaw and attempted to guard against, dangers that today are only too apparent. “In governments purely republican,” he wrote, “this tendency is almost irresistible. The representatives of the people, in a popular assembly, seem sometimes to fancy that they are the people themselves, and betray strong symptoms of impatience and disgust at the least sign of opposition from any other quarter; as if the exercise of its rights, by either the executive or the judiciary, were a breach of their privilege and an outrage to their dignity. They often appear disposed to exert an imperious control over the other departments; and, as they commonly have the people on their side, they always act with such momentum as to make it very difficult for the other members of the government to maintain the balance of the Constitution.”Never did human ingenuity devise a more nicely balanced system of government than when the framers of the Constitution allocated to the executive and to the legislature the exercise of powers not to be infringed by the other; but like many things human the intent has been perverted. Every person familiar with the Constitution, the debates in the convention, and the writings of Madison, Hamilton, and Jay in The Federalist, must know that the purpose of the framers of the Constitution was to create a system of government by which the President should become neither the creature nor the controller of the legislature; and by vesting certain exclusive powers in the popular branch and certain other powers in the Senate to provide that the line of demarcation between the two houses should not be overstepped.

“The Transparency of Democracy”: The Production of Washington’s Nationals Park as a Late Capitalist Space

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Friedman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
The United States ◽  
City Government ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
The Us ◽  
Baseball Team ◽  
The City

Following the trend of cities throughout the United States subsidizing new baseball stadiums within their economic redevelopment strategies, in 2005, the city government of Washington, D.C. agreed to subsidize the construction of Nationals Park for the use of the Washington Nationals baseball team. In its design of the stadium, HOK Sport architects sought to represent the “transparency of democracy” as they were inspired by the democratic image and iconography of the US Capital city. Using a perspective based in Lefebvre’s (1991b) production of space, I explore the power relations produced and reproduced within spatial and cultural production. I argue that instead of creating an inclusive space, architects designed a space that exemplifies the late capitalist moment in its focus on consumption, social control, and aesthetic production. Nationals Park, thus, excludes people by class, privileges visitors over residents, and provides an unrealistic view of the city that marginalizes less powerful groups.

Afterword

2020 ◽  
pp. 211-218
Author(s):  
Julia E. Rusk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gross Domestic Product ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Report Card ◽  
City Government ◽  
The People ◽  
Wellbeing Index ◽  
Santa Monica ◽  
The City

This afterword presents a vision for well-being policies and actions in the United States, focusing on the experience of the City of Santa Monica, California. The purpose of data is to put it into action. The goal in Santa Monica is to make this a reality, with benefits accruing regularly to every resident, neighborhood, business, and contributor to the community. This was the idea behind Santa Monica’s local Wellbeing Index: harnessing the power of data for the commonwealth that would reveal the story of the people and the community in new ways, and that would help to transform city government. The goal of the Wellbeing Index was to expand the measures of a community far beyond the traditional and economically-focused gross domestic product (GDP). Going forward, the Wellbeing Index will be the tool used to evaluate whether policies, programs, and other City investments are in fact improving community well-being. The chapter also looks at Santa Monica’s programs, such as the Youth Wellbeing Report Card and the Pico Wellbeing Project.

The City Manager in the United States

1949 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 247-258
Author(s):  
Louis Brownlow
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
City Manager ◽  
The City

Religion by Permission of the Government

Worldview ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 31-35
Author(s):  
Frank Patton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Church And State ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
United States Supreme ◽  
Estate Taxes ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City

In a 1970 decision the United States Supreme Court approved the exemption of church property from city real estate taxes, noting that “separation of church and state” was thereby well served (Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York). The Court stated:The exemption creates only a minimal and remote involvement between church and state and far less than taxation of churches. It restricts the fiscal relationship between church and state, and tends to complement and reinforce the desired separation, insulating each from the other.

scholarly journals Chapter I: Inaugural Ceremony

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 2-18
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Committee ◽  
Brass Quintet ◽  
Johns Hopkins University ◽  
The Us ◽  
Convention Center ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City

The Inaugural Ceremony was held at the Convention Center, Baltimore, in the presence of distinguished representatives from the Government of the United States, the State of Maryland, the City of Baltimore, the Johns Hopkins University, the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, the and the US National Committee for the IAU.The chair was taken by Dr. A. Davidsen, co-Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, from the Johns Hopkins University.A rousing aubade, specially composed for the occasion by Elam Ray Sprenkle, was beautifully performed by the Annapolis Brass Quintet under the direction of David Cren.

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