The Responsiveness of Federal and State Governments to Urban Problems

Abstract

iACH NEW ADMINISTRATION in Washington is confronted with new calls to do something about the nation's cities. Each new administration reevaluates federal programs in and for the nation's cities; yet to date federal urban policy remains a series of dilemmas and contradictions.' The purpose of this paper is to examine the responsiveness of both federal and state spending to urban problems. We want to learn whether federal and/or state spending in the nation's largest cities is positively associated with generally accepted measures of urban resources; or whether federal and/or state spending appears unrelated to urban needs and resources. If it turns out that federal spending in cities is unrelated to urban needs and resources, then there is added incentive for a critical reevaluation of federal urban policy. Specifically, this research examines the following: (1) whether total federal outlays in the cities are correlated with any generally accepted measures of social need in cities-poverty, overcrowding, old age, female-headed households, racial imbalance, mortality rates, segregation, crime, income inequality, or age of cities;