Faces of Inequality

Rodney E. Hero is Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is also the author of Latinos and the U.S. Political System (1992), which won the American Political Science Association's Ralph Bunche Award for 1993.

• 1: Social Diversity and the Study of State Politics and Policy2: The Social Diversity Interpretation in Perspective: Reviewing Other Approaches Explaining State Politics3: Social Diversity and Political Institutions, Political Processes, and Attitudes4: Social Diversity and Formal Institutions of State Government5: Social Diversity and State Public Policies, I: Education, Health, Welfare6: Social Diversity and State Public Policies, II: Other Politics7: Social Diversity at the Substate Level8: The Social Diversity Interpretation of State Politics and Policy in Perspective

Rodney Hero confronts directly the weaknesses of Elazar's political culture thesis as the explanation for state-level political behavior and public policy decisions. Building on V. O. Key's belief that race is at the center of Southern politics, Hero expands on Key to argue that race is at the center of state politics in general. This is a provocative and important book that provides a new prism through which to view both state politics and public policy in America.