Dukakis and the Reform Impulse


Book Description

"Authors Richard Gaines and Michael Segal offer an absorbing account of Michael Dukakis as a child growing up with strick, Greek immigrant parents ; as a young man coming of age at a time when his state was experiencing a profound shift away from ward politics to issue politics ; and as a governor who transformed himself from one of the most idealistic and ineffective governors in America into one of the most sophisticated and respected."--Inside jacket.




Dukakis and the Reform Impulse


Book Description

"Authors Richard Gaines and Michael Segal offer an absorbing account of Michael Dukakis as a child growing up with strick, Greek immigrant parents ; as a young man coming of age at a time when his state was experiencing a profound shift away from ward politics to issue politics ; and as a governor who transformed himself from one of the most idealistic and ineffective governors in America into one of the most sophisticated and respected."--Inside jacket.




After Reagan


Book Description

Upon the 2018 death of George H. W. Bush, pundits and politicians mourned the passing of an exemplar of the statesmanship and bipartisan ethos of an earlier day. The judgment, though sound, would have shocked observers of the 1988 election that put Bush in the White House. From a scholar who played a small role in that long-ago election, After Reagan provides an eye-opening look at a presidential campaign that few suspected marked the end of an era—or the rise of forces roiling our political landscape today. Willie Horton. “Read my lips: No new taxes.” Michael Dukakis in a helmet, in a tank. Though these are remembered as pivotal moments in a presidential campaign recalled as whisker-close, in his book John J. Pitney Jr. reminds us how large Bush’s victory actually was, and how much it depended on social conditions and political dynamics that would change dramatically in the coming years. A turning point toward the post–Cold War, hyper-partisan, culturally divided politics of our time, the election of 1988 took place in a very different world. After Reagan captures a moment when campaigns were funded from the federal Treasury; when Republicans had a lock on the presidency and Democrats controlled Congress; when the electorate was considerably whiter and less educated than today’s; and when the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union—and the subsequent rise of globalization—were virtually unimaginable. Many books tell us that elections have consequences. Pitney’s explains how campaigns are consequential—the 1988 campaign more than most. From the perspective of the last thirty years, After Reagan shows us the 1988 election in a truly new light—one that, in turn, reveals the links between the campaign of 1988 and the politics of the twenty-first century.




Don't Blame Us


Book Description

Don't Blame Us traces the reorientation of modern liberalism and the Democratic Party away from their roots in labor union halls of northern cities to white-collar professionals in postindustrial high-tech suburbs, and casts new light on the importance of suburban liberalism in modern American political culture. Focusing on the suburbs along the high-tech corridor of Route 128 around Boston, Lily Geismer challenges conventional scholarly assessments of Massachusetts exceptionalism, the decline of liberalism, and suburban politics in the wake of the rise of the New Right and the Reagan Revolution in the 1970s and 1980s. Although only a small portion of the population, knowledge professionals in Massachusetts and elsewhere have come to wield tremendous political leverage and power. By probing the possibilities and limitations of these suburban liberals, this rich and nuanced account shows that—far from being an exception to national trends—the suburbs of Massachusetts offer a model for understanding national political realignment and suburban politics in the second half of the twentieth century.




Leadership Counts


Book Description

How can public officials move large government agencies to produce significant results? In Leadership Counts Robert Behn explains exactly what managers in the inherently political environment of government need to do to obtain such performance. In 1983 the leadership of the Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare -Charles M. Atkins, Thomas P. Glynn, Barbara Burke-Tatum, and Jolie Bain Pillsbury-set out to educate and train welfare recipients, place them in good jobs, and move them from dependency to selfsufficiency- From these efforts to accomplish a specific and important public purpose, Behn extracts the fundamental ingredients of successful public leadership. Behn's analysis spans the spectrum of managerial tasks-from the almost spiritual responsibility to create and communicate a public mission to the seemingly mundane chore of motivating specific individuals to accomplish specific tasks. He describes how to manage for performance, examines how effective leaders can use external success to build internal morale, and analyzes the dilemmas of evaluating ongoing and evolving public policies. He explains in detail how accomplishing specific purposes requires management by groping along. And he analyzes three different metastrategies for government executives -strategies that emphasize policy, administration, or leadership. Leadership Counts is more than an intriguing success story. It offers specific lessons that the nominal head of any government agency can employ to become the organization's true leader. This insightful book will be of interest not only to students and teachers of public management but to leaders at all levels of government-from the principal of a school to the secretary of defense.




Dukakis


Book Description




A Legacy of Innovation


Book Description

From La Follette to Faubus, from Rockefeller to Reagan, U.S. governors have addressed some of the most contentious policy questions of the twentieth century. In doing so, they not only responded to dramatic changes in the political landscape, they shaped that landscape. The influence of governors has been felt both within the states and across the nation. It is telling that four of the last five U.S. Presidents were former state governors. A Legacy of Innovation: Governors and Public Policy examines the changing role of the state governor during the "American Century." In this volume, top political scientists, historians, and journalists track the evolution of gubernatorial leadership as it has dealt with critical issues, including conservation, transportation, civil rights, education, globalization, and health care. As the most visible state officials, twentieth-century governors often found themselves at the center of America's conflicting political tendencies. A Legacy of Innovation describes how they negotiated the tensions between increasing democratization and the desire for expert control, the rise of interest groups and demise of political parties, the pull of regionalism against growing nationalism, and the rising demand for public services in a society that fears centralized government. In their responses to these conflicts, governors helped shape the institutions of modern American government. As state governments face new policy challenges in the twenty-first century, A Legacy of Innovation will serve as a valuable source of information for political scientists and policy makers alike.




The Hub's Metropolis


Book Description

The evolution of the Boston metropolitan area, from country villages and streetcar suburbs to exurban sprawl and “smart growth.” Boston's metropolitan landscape has been two hundred years in the making. From its proto-suburban village centers of 1800 to its far-flung, automobile-centric exurbs of today, Boston has been a national pacesetter for suburbanization. In The Hub's Metropolis, James O'Connell charts the evolution of Boston's suburban development. The city of Boston is compact and consolidated—famously, “the Hub.” Greater Boston, however, stretches over 1,736 square miles and ranks as the world's sixth largest metropolitan area. Boston suburbs began to develop after 1820, when wealthy city dwellers built country estates that were just a short carriage ride away from their homes in the city. Then, as transportation became more efficient and affordable, the map of the suburbs expanded. The Metropolitan Park Commission's park-and-parkway system, developed in the 1890s, created a template for suburbanization that represents the country's first example of regional planning. O'Connell identifies nine layers of Boston's suburban development, each of which has left its imprint on the landscape: traditional villages; country retreats; railroad suburbs; streetcar suburbs (the first electric streetcar boulevard, Beacon Street in Brookline, was designed by Frederic Law Olmsted); parkway suburbs, which emphasized public greenspace but also encouraged commuting by automobile; mill towns, with housing for workers; upscale and middle-class suburbs accessible by outer-belt highways like Route 128; exurban, McMansion-dotted sprawl; and smart growth. Still a pacesetter, Greater Boston has pioneered antisprawl initiatives that encourage compact, mixed-use development in existing neighborhoods near railroad and transit stations. O'Connell reminds us that these nine layers of suburban infrastructure are still woven into the fabric of the metropolis. Each chapter suggests sites to visit, from Waltham country estates to Cambridge triple-deckers.




The Best Job in Politics: Exploring How Governors Succeed as Policy Leaders


Book Description

Governors - both in, and now out of, office - see the job as the best in politics. Why is that? This title shows students how and why governors succeed as policy leaders and makes a case as to why some governors are better at leveraging the institutional advantages of the office.




The Politics of Massachusetts Exceptionalism


Book Description

“Thorough, engaging, and full of insight . . . a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the state’s governmental process and its political actors.” —Jeffrey M. Berry, author of Lobbying for the People: The Political Behavior of Public Interest Groups Are claims of Massachusetts’s special and instructive place in American history and politics justified? Alternately described as a “city upon a hill” and “an organized system of hatreds,” Massachusetts politics has indisputably exerted an outsized pull on the national stage. The Commonwealth’s leaders often argue for the state’s distinct position within the union, citing its proud abolitionist history and its status as a policy leader on health care, gay marriage, and transgender rights, not to mention its fertile soil for budding national politicians. Detractors point to the state’s busing crisis, sky-high levels of economic inequality, and mixed support for undocumented immigrants. The Politics of Massachusetts Exceptionalism tackles these tensions, offering a collection of essays from public policy experts that address the state’s noteworthy contributions to the nation’s political history. This is a much-needed volume for Massachusetts policymakers, journalists, and community leaders, as well as those learning about political power at the state level, inside and outside of the classroom. Contributors include the editors as well as Maurice T. Cunningham, Lawrence Friedman, Shannon Jenkins, Luis F. Jiménez, and Peter Ubertaccio. “One-stop shopping for an understanding of Massachusetts politics.” —CommonWealth Magazine