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appropriate,

-- Loomis Mayfield

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date:         Sun, 23 Feb 1997 22:56:50 +0000
Sender: H-NET Urban History Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>

Almost a year ago, Wendy Plotkin asked me to prepare something from my
dissertation to post to the H-Urban gopher.

H-URBAN deposited the abstract, table of contents, and introduction to my
dissertation at:  h-net2.msu.edu:70/11/lists/H-URBAN/dissertations (H-NET
Gopher site).  This is also linked at my personal biography on the
Internet at http://www.luc.edu/depts/curl/prag (the World Wide Web site
for the Policy Research Action Group)

Since then, I have had several requests for the Dissertation Abstract
number.  The dissertation has finally gotten thru the bureacracies at both
my school and UMI, and, for anyone interested, I now have the number.

The Dissertation Abstracts order number is:  DA #:  9709396

A copy of my abstract follows.

_____________

THE REORGANIZATION OF URBAN POLITICS:
THE CHICAGO GROWTH MACHINE AFTER WORLD WAR II

by Loomis Mayfield, Ph.D.

Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, 1996
M.A., Northern Illinois University, 1983
B.A., Indiana University, 1980
Ph.D. committee chair:  Samuel P. Hays
               --------
(c) Copyright by Loomis Mayfield  1996
            All Rights Reserved

Portions of this file may be distributed
over the Internet with proper attribution.

--------
This dissertation was completed in Spring Term, 1996.
The Dissertation Abstracts order number is:  DA #:  9709396
--------

     The modern urban economy is marked by an economic and
demographic dispersal away from cities to the suburbs.  New areas
of the metropolitan region gained production facilities while the
economy of the city and its central business district were
dominated by the growing professional service sector and the
remaining consumer retail business.  Civic and business leaders
rebuilt the city to fit the changing economy and protect their
private investments in the declining city, and political power
shifted away from voters in neighborhoods to downtown business
interests.

     As the ruling urban regime used public policy to make the
city a vehicle for economic growth, they made policies and caused
changes in social patterns which created problems for local
communities within the city.  This provoked the formation of
similar types of opposition in different cities.  In Chicago,
three main groups opposed the urban regime:  white liberals,
black independents, and white ethnics.  The black independent
movement eventually defeated the urban regime, strengthened by
the metropolitan social changes affecting the city and motivated
by the way the political system dealt with racial issues.
However, its success was short lived.

     Chicago is used as a case study for how these processes
affected cities.  The modern urban regime under Mayor Richard J.
Daley (1955 to 1976) responded to the fundamental weaknesses of
the modern city.  The main urban economic and demographic
patterns are outlined and Chicago is put into the national
context to show that other cities were affected in similar ways.
Background on politics and urban planning in Chicago is provided
to better understand the significant changes in the post-World
War II period.

     The growth machine concept defines modern cities as engines
of economic development for business interests.  Individuals and
institutions in the growth machine profit from the
intensification of land use.  This analysis is based on an
expanded and historical view of the growth machine and informed
by ideas from regime theory.  Regime theory explores the informal
decision making process and arrangements where business elites
often exercise political power.  Chicago's example suggests this
interpretation can be explored in other places.

******************************************************************
Loomis Mayfield         Direct: 312-915-8625
Research Coordinator            Fax:    312-915-7770
Policy Research Action Group    Main #: 312-915-8622

Lewis Towers - 10th Floor       Internet address:
820 N. Michigan Ave.            [log in to unmask]
Loyola University - Chicago
Chicago, Illinois  60611
PRAG Web Page address: http://www.luc.edu/depts/curl/prag/


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