Social class, politics, and urban markets: the makings of bias in policy outcomes

Abstract

This book is about policymaking of public agencies in large American cities. Based on a decade of research, it studies urban mass transit in terms of factors that bias industry's policy outcomes to benefit one public or another. Why is there a great variance of outcomes among agencies? What are important taproots of bias in policymaking? How does pattern of outcomes correspond to American mosaic of public interests? The book's second-broader and more important-purpose is to demonstrate value of social science theory in making sense of urban processes and responsiveness of governmental policymaking in a plural society. The book analyzes applicability of six rival theses-derived from political science, economics, administrative theory, sociology, social psychology, and urban planning-to understanding forces that mold policymaking in American metropolitan areas. The book employs methods of rigorous quantitative analysis, such as regression, factor, and path techniques to examine 42 transit agencies operating in urban areas with populations of at least 500,000. Focusing on question of bias in an agency's policies, author devises an imaginative method for comparing different kinds of policy outcomes in a neutral light. The model, Multiple Simultaneous Outcome Indices, allows analyst to observe differences in emphasis of one perspective relative to another. How and why do urban agencies differ in emphases of their policy outcomes? At root of answers is globalization, but author argues that certain local influences within an urban setting exert a more direct effect on policy outcomes. These influences include socioeconomic status, wealth and racial poverty, intergovernmental relationships, market competition between automobiles and transit, and way cities are laid out (including effects of sprawl). In end, book reveals most significant influence to be cultural phenomenon of American upper middle class, which represents the good life and is associated with symbolically appealing technologies and nuisance of urban roadway congestion.