Reforming the City

Ariane Liazos is a research advisor in the social sciences and lecturer at the Harvard Extension School. With Theda Skocpol and Marshall Ganz, she is coauthor of What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality (2006).

• Introduction: Urban Reform, Coalitions, and American Political Development1. The Emergence of the Movement for “Good City Government”: Municipal Reform Associations, c. 1880–19002. “Saved by the Scholar”: Political Science, the Municipal Program, and the National Municipal League, c. 1890–19003. The Municipal Program and Early Campaigns for Charter Reform, c. 1895–19104. “The Franchise Problem”: Home Rule, Charter Reform, and the Provision of Public Services, c. 1900–19155. The Commission Plan, c. 1900–19156. “Whether Democracy and Efficiency Are Inherently Irreconcilable”: Professionalization and Expertise in Municipal Reform, c. 1905–19207. “The Transition to Government by Experts”: The Origins and Spread of Commission/City Manager Government, 1912–19258. The Legacy of the Movement for Urban Reform: State Building and Popular Control Epilogue: The End of the CoalitionsAcknowledgmentsAppendix 1Appendix 2Publication AbbreviationsNotesIndex

A century ago, progressive reformers often thought expertise and nonpartisanship were the solution to extreme polarization and inequality in U.S. politics, as they do now. But Ariane Liazos dramatizes the unintended consequences of changes pursued in hundreds of U.S. cities in the early 1900s. The findings in Reforming the City hold important lessons for today’s democracy reformers, along with all students of American history and politics.