POLS 367 URBAN POLITICS

Fall 2017

Professor Michael Leo Owens

michael.leo.owens@emory.edu1
Office hours: By appointment via face-to-face meeting in
Tarbutton 306 or Skype (uhurushalom)

Urban politics involves contests among groups at the local level to acquire influence over the decisions of
municipal institutions in cities, large and small. Among many questions, the course answers how the political
behavior of various groups and interests shape cities and how cities shape the political behavior of groups and
interests.

PROFESSOR’S GOALS

1. Introduce students to the historical, theoretical, and empirical scholarship about municipal politics in
cities;

2. Provide students with a set of historical and theoretical perspectives for examining the distribution and
organization of power and politics in municipal America;

3. Assist students in identifying the interconnections among demography, culture, economy, and polity and
how the interconnections influence political and social inequality in American society;

4. Lay a foundation for students to engage in critique, introspection, and speculation about the import of
power and politics to social relations in and around cities;

5. Permit eligible students to complete a Minor in Community Building and Social Change.

COURSE MATERIALS

The course’s materials are a required textbook, a set of scholarly journal articles, newspaper stories, reports, and
a narrative film, and our brains. The required textbook is Urban Politics: Power in Metropolitan America 7th
Edition, by Bernard Ross and Myron Levine. Emory's Barnes & Noble has a sufficient stock of rental copies of
the 7th edition, which is the only edition suitable for this course. All other readings are available via the online
reserves system of the Woodruff Library. As for the narrative film, The Last Hurrah, it is available for rental
from many online sources (see schedule of sessions). Furthermore, to round out students’ understandings of
current issues related to urban politics, as well as to generate discussion during some class sessions, students
should peruse the national section of The New York Times and the metro section of the Atlanta Journal
Constitution before each class session.

STUDENT EVALUATION

Professor Owens will evaluate student performance through two examinations, a set of short assignments, and
class participation. The Department of Political Science has adopted a policy to describe in general terms the
level of student performance associated with earning overall (i.e., final) grades in the department’s courses. The
standards for the department and this course, which Professor Owens will use in awarding overall (i.e., final)
grades for the course, are available from Professor Owens.

Examinations (70%)

1  Professor  Owens  doesn't  read  email  messages  before  11:30am  or  after  5:30pm  weekdays.  As  for  weekends,  he  reads  email  messages  
infrequently.  Additionally,  he  doesn’t  text  students.  
The course requires two examinations. Except for extreme circumstances (i.e., death in the family or severe
illness), the course will not permit makeup exams. Exam formats will be announced in advance.

Short Assignments (20%)

The course requires students to complete four short assignments throughout the semester. The assignments range
from a short excursion to the city of Decatur to watching a 2-hour film outside of class. The schedule of sessions
identifies the assignments and their due dates. Except for extreme circumstances (i.e., death in the family or
severe illness), submissions after their due date will not be graded.
Assignment #1. To complete the assignment, visit the Confederate monument at Decatur Square. Take a
selfie with the monument. Then ask three strangers/passersby if (a) they know it’s a memorial to the
Confederate States of America and (b) whether they support or oppose it remaining on public land. Type a
brief report (250 words maximum) of your experience and findings, including date and time you visited the
monument. Include the selfie in your short paper. Due September 7th.
Assignment #2. Identify the forms of government of two cities of your choice (e.g., your city or the city
closest to your suburban or rural area and another city). Focus on the distribution of legislative and
executive powers, answering the questions “How is formal power distributed?” Also, identify how members
of the municipal legislature are chosen (i.e., district, at-large, mixed). Use municipal websites for your cities
and the website municode.com, which has the city charters for many cities, to correctly figure out the cities’
forms of government. Type and print your findings, including the names of your cities, as a brief report (375
words maximum) and bring it to class. Due September 22nd.
Assignment #3. Watch the 2-hour film The Last Hurrah (available for free borrowing from Woodruff Library
or online rental ($2.99) from Amazon, YouTube, iTunes, etc. Type and print a short paper (750 words
maximum) where you briefly describe the film (one short paragraph) and then defend a side -- the machine of
Frank Skeffington or the progressives of the Plymouth Club – as being more good than bad. In taking your
stand, make sure to make an argument for defending your side and draw from course materials. Due October
12th.
Assignment #4. Follow the results of the following Atlanta 2017 municipal elections: (1) mayor, (2) city council
president, and (3) a district or at-large race of your choosing in the city of Atlanta. Consult the Atlanta Journal-
Constitution and WABE/NPR 90.1. Type and print (750 words maximum) the results, describing the general
characteristics of the candidates (i.e., gender, race, age, experience, incumbency) and the margin of victory for the
winning candidate. Bring your report to class. Due November 9th.
Class Participation (10%)

The course is primarily a lecture-based course. But Professor Owens expects active participation from students.
“Active participation” involves asking pertinent questions, answering questions voluntarily, sharing relevant
insights, and contributing to the general learning of peers. Active participants demonstrate during class sessions,
office hours, and other opportunities that they have read closely, taken notes on the materials, and thought
critically about assigned readings and films. Consistently low levels of active participation will lower your final
grade. Of course, absences influence active participation, which influence final grades. Excused absences (e.g.,
death in the family, severe personal illnesses, or verifiable job interviews) will not affect your grade. Each
unexcused absence after the first one will drop a student’s overall grade by one grade reduction (e.g., A- drops to
B+) per unexcused absence. Professor Owens will track student attendance.

ACCOMMODATIONS FOR DISABLED INDIVIDUALS

Emory University is committed under the Americans with Disabilities Act and its Amendments and Section 504
of the Rehabilitation Act to providing appropriate accommodations to individuals with documented disabilities. If
you have a disability-related need for reasonable academic adjustments in this course, provide Professor Owens
with an accommodation notification letter from the Access, Disabilities Services and Resources office. Students
are expected to give Professor Owens two weeks-notice of the need for accommodations. If you need immediate

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accommodations or physical access, please arrange to meet with Professor Owens as soon as your
accommodations have been finalized.
By the way, Professor Owens has a disability. His hearing is profoundly impaired in his left ear, resulting from a
hit and run when he was a child. By history and choice, he does not wear a hearing aid. He asks that students
accommodate his impairment by always speaking up when asking a question or making comments during class
and office hours.

HONOR CODE

The honor code -- http://catalog.college.emory.edu/academic/policies-regulations/honor-code.html -- is in effect

throughout the semester. By taking this course, you affirm that it is a violation of the code to cheat on exams, to
plagiarize, to deviate from the teacher’s instructions about collaboration on work that is submitted for grades, to
give false information to a faculty member, and to undertake any other form of academic misconduct. You agree
that the teacher is entitled to move you to another seat during examinations, without explanation. You also affirm
that if you witness others violating the code you have a duty to report them to the honor council.

SCHEDULE OF SESSIONS, READINGS, ASSIGNMENTS, & EXAMINATIONS

8/24 Introduction to the Course and to Each Other

8/25 Confederate Monuments on Municipal Land: Reading National News as an Urban Politics
Scholar (Remember… “All Politics is Local”)

• Nicholas Fandos, Russell Goldman and Jess Bidgood, “Baltimore Mayor Had Statues
Removed in ‘Best Interest of My City’,” New York Times (2017)
• Mitch Landrieu, “Truth: Remarks on the Removal of Confederate Monuments in New
Orleans,” Press Release, City of New Orleans (2017)
• Southern Poverty Law Center, “150 Years of Confederate Iconography,” from Whose
Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy (2016)
• Johnathan Blake, “Republican Legislators Want You to Think Confederate Monuments
Aren’t Political,” The Nation (2017)
• Kathryn Casteel and Anna Maria Barry-Jester, “There Are Still More Than 700
Confederate Monuments in the U.S.” FiveThirtyEight (2017)
• Craig Johnson, Petition Seeks to Remove Confederate Memorial in Decatur (2017)

8/29 Local Politics > All Other Politics (Yes, It’s True. [Smile])

• Peter Jon, “Why Study Urban Politics?,” from Theories of Urban Politics (2009), pp. 17-22
• Jessica Trounstine, “All Politics Is Local: The Reemergence of the Study of City Politics,”
Perspectives on Politics (2009), pp. 611-618
• Emily Badger & Quoctrung Bui, “Why Republicans Don’t Even Try to Win Cities
Anymore,” New York Times (2016)

8/31 & 9/1 Classes Cancelled – Read to Catch Up, Get Ahead, or Complete Short Assignment #1
Note: Professor MiLO will be attending the annual conference of the American Political
Science Association in San Francisco (August 30th-September 3rd). Use the 100 minutes to
read or work on the first short assignment.

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9/5-9/7 Context for Learning about Municipal Politics in Cities
• Bernard Ross and Myron Levine, Urban Politics, pp. 1-35, 41-70, 82-98, 441-466
Note: Short assignment #1 due on 9/7.
9/8 Context for Learning about Municipal Politics in Cities - continued
• Bernard Ross and Myron Levine, Urban Politics, pp. 473-508
9/12 Context for Learning about Municipal Politics in Cities - continued
• Justin de Benedictis-Kessner & Christopher Warshaw, “Mayoral Partisanship and
Municipal Fiscal Policy,” Journal of Politics (2016), pp. 1124-1137
• Zoltan Hajnal and Jessica Trounstine, “Who or What Governs? The Effects of Economics,
Politics, Institutions, and Needs on Local Spending,” American Politics Research (2010) p.
1130-1163
9/14 The Ghost of Dillon: Home Rule and State Preemption
• Bernard Ross and Myron Levine, Urban Politics, pp. 133-139
• Emily Badger, “Blue Cities Want to Make Their Own Rules. Red States Won’t Let Them,”
New York Times (2017), read entire story
• National League of Cities, City Rights in an Era of Preemption: A State-by-State Analysis
(2017)
9/15 Spillover Session and/or Current Municipal Politics Discussion
9/19-9/21 Forms of City Government/Formal Power in Municipalities
• Bernard Ross and Myron Levine, Urban Politics, pp. 139-159 and 267-276
• National League of Cities, “Forms of Municipal Government,” (n.d.), web post

9/22 Forms of City Government/Formal Power in Municipalities - continued

Note: Short assignment #2 due on 9/22.
9/26 Political Machines & Patronage Politics
• Dennis Judd and Paul Kantor, “Introduction: The Evolution of Urban Politics in America”
from The Politics of Urban America: A Reader, pp. 3-6 (on reserve)
• Bernard Ross and Myron Levine, Urban Politics, pp. 173-183 (don’t read “Why did
Political Machines Decline?) and pp. 185-189 (don’t read “Conclusions…”)
• Alan DiGaetano, “The Rise and Development of Urban Political Machines: An Alternative
to Merton’s Functional Analysis,” Urban Affairs Review (1998), pp. 242-267
9/28 Political Machines & Patronage Politics - continued
• William Riordan, “Reciprocity in Patronage,” “Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft,” and
“To Hold Your District: Study Human Nature and Act Accordin'” from A Series of Very
Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics (1905), read all of the sections, which are short
• Clarence Stone, “Urban Political Machines: Taking Stock,” PS: Political Science and
Politics (1996), pp. 446-450
• Bernard Ross and Myron Levine, Urban Politics, pp. 189-191

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9/29 Reform Ideology & Interests: Challenging Machine Rule & Patronage in Cities
• Andrew White, “City Affairs are Not Political” from The Politics of Urban America: A
Reader, pp. 123-125
• Samuel Hays, “The Politics of Reform in Municipal Government in the Progressive Era”
from The Politics of Urban America: A Reader, pp. 126-144
10/3 Municipal Reform: Institutions and Mechanisms
• Bernard Ross and Myron Levine, Urban Politics, pp. 197-226
10/5 Municipal Reform: Institutions and Mechanisms – The Case of “Suffrage Restrictions”
• Amy Bridges and Richard Kronick, “Writing the Rules to Win the Game: The Middle-
Class Regimes of Municipal Reformers,” Urban Affairs Review (1999), pp. 691-70
• Emily Badger, “12 Very Real Voter-Suppression Tactics Experts Now Worry Will Come
Back,” CITYLAB (2013), read all of the post
• Maggie Astor, “Maryland City May Let Noncitizens Vote, A Proposal with Precedent,” New
York Times (2017), read the short article
10/6 Political Machines & Patronage after the Progressive Movement
• Steven P. Erie, “The Last Hurrah? Machines in the Postwar Era, 1950-1985” from
Rainbow’s End: Irish-Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840-
1985, pp. 140-177
• Bernard Ross and Myron Levine, Urban Politics, pp. 183-187.
10/10 Fall Break – (Recommendation: Watch “The Last Hurrah” during your break.)
10/12 Were Political Machines So Bad? Were Reformers So Great? Let’s Debate!

• Jessica Trounstine, “Challenging the Machine–Reform Dichotomy: Two Threats to Urban

Democracy” from The City in American Political Development, (2009), pp. 77-97
• Michael Leo Owens, “Symbols and Meaning in ‘The Last Hurrah’,” (2009)
Note: Short assignment #3 due on 10/12.
10/13 Spillover Session and/or Current Municipal Politics Discussion
10/17 Examination #1
10/19 Political Behavior & Municipal Politics
• Sidney Verba et al., “Defining Political Participation” and “Explaining Participation:
Introductory Considerations,” Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics
(1995), pp. 37-48 and 269-273
• Bernard Ross and Myron Levine, Urban Politics, pp. 233-248 and 256-258

10/20 Protest as Local Political Behavior: The Case of Ferguson

• Richard Fauset, “Mostly Black Cities, Mostly White City Halls” and the interactive graphic
“White City Councils for Black Cities,” New York Times (2014), read all of it and explore
the graphic
• Michael Sances & Hye Young Yo, “Who Pays for Government? Descriptive
Representation and Exploitative Revenue Sources,” Journal of Politics (2017), pp. 1090-

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 1094
• Michael Lipsky, “Protest as a Political Resource,” American Political Science Review
(1968), pp. 1144-1148

• U.S. Department of Justice, The Ferguson Report: Department of Justice Investigation of

the Ferguson Police Department (2015), pp. 1-15

10/24 Municipal Elections and Voter Turnout

• J. Eric Oliver, “Who Votes in Local Elections” from Local Elections and the Politics of
Small-Scale Democracy (2012), pp. 53-86
• Zoltan Hajnal, and Paul Lewis, “Municipal Institutions and Voter Turnout in Local
Elections,” Urban Affairs Review (2003), pp. 645-668
10/26 Local Elections as Lenses for Observing Social Cleavages and Retrospective Voting
• Zoltan Hajnal & Jessica Trounstine, “What Underlies Urban Politics? Race, Class,
Ideology, Partisanship, and the Urban Vote,” Urban Affairs Review (2014), 63-99
• Craig Burnett and Vladimir Koga, “The Politics of Potholes: Service Quality and
Retrospective Voting in Local Elections,” Journal of Politics (2017), pp. 302-314
10/27 Voting for Municipal Incorporation & Consolidation
• Nancy Burns, “Private Values, Public Institutions” from The Formation of American Local
Governments (1994), pp. 3-21
• Kathryn Rice, Leora Waldner, and Russell Smith, “Why New Cities Form: An Examination
into Municipal Incorporation in the United States 1950-2010,” Journal of Planning
Literature (2014), pp. 140-151.
• H.V. Savitch and Ronald K. Vogel, “Suburbs Without a City: Power and City-County
Consolidation,” Urban Affairs Review (2004), pp. 759-763 and pp. 780-781
10/31 Municipal Politics of Fragmentation (Suburbs) and Metropolitanization (Regions)
• Bernard Ross and Myron Levine, Urban Politics, 339-375 and 385-403
11/2 Descriptive Representation, Political Incorporation, and Municipal Empowerment

• Jane Mansbridge, “Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A
Contingent ‘Yes’,” Journal of Politics (1999), pp. 628-654
• Suzanne Dovi, “In Praise of Exclusion,” Journal of Politics, (2009), pp. 1172-1186
11/3 Spillover Session and/or Current Municipal Politics Discussion

11/7 The 2017 Municipal Elections in the City of Atlanta: They Could Be Historic!
• Ernie Suggs and Leon Stafford, “The Mayor’s Race: Is Atlanta Ready to Elect a White
Leader?,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2017), read all of it
• Michael Leo Owens and Jacob Brown, “Weakening Strong Black Political Empowerment:
Implications from Atlanta’s 2009 Mayoral Election,” Journal of Urban Affairs Review
(2014), pp. 663-681
• H. Gibbs Knotts and Moshe Haspel, “The Impact of Gentrification on Voter Turnout,”
Social Science Quarterly (2006), 110-121
• Thomas Edsall, “The Changing Face of Urban Power,” New York Times (2016)

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11/9 The Results Are In! What Happened in Atlanta?
Note: Short assignment # 4 due on 11/9.
11/10 Municipal Representation & Responsiveness: African Americans
• Marschall & Ruhil, “Pomp of Power: Black Mayoralties in Urban America,” Social Science
Quarterly (2006), pp. 828-847
• Daniel Hopkins & Katherine McCabe, “After It’s Too Late: Estimating the Policy Impacts
of Black Mayoralties in U.S. Cities,” American Politics Research (2012), pp. 670-674 and
pp. 685-692
11/14 Municipal Representation & Responsiveness: Latinos
• Paru Shah, “Racing Toward Representation: A Hurdle Model of Latino Incorporation,”
American Politics Research (2010), pp. 84-109
• Rene Rocha and Tetsuya Matsubayashi, “Latino Representation and Immigration in Local
Politics,” Urban Affairs Review (2013), pp. 353-380
11/16 Intergroup Competition over Political Representation & Responsiveness
• Paula McClain, “Presidential Address -- Racial Intergroup Competition in a Set of Cities:
A Twenty-Year Perspective,” Journal of Politics (2006), pp. 757-770
• Betina Cutaia Wilkinson, “Perceptions of Commonality and Latino–Black, Latino–White
Relations in a Multiethnic United States,” Political Research Quarterly (2014), pp. 905-
916
11/17 Municipal Representation & Responsiveness: Women
• Smith, Adrienne R., Beth Reingold, and Michael Leo Owens, “The Political Determinants
of Women’s Descriptive Representation in Cities,” Political Research Quarterly (2012), pp.
315-329
• Mirya Holman, “Sex and The City: Female Leaders and Spending on Social Welfare
Programs in U.S. Municipalities,” Journal of Urban Affairs (2014), pp. 701-715
11/21 Municipal Representation & Responsiveness: The LGBTQ Community
• James Button, Kenneth Wald, and Barbara Rienzo, “The Election of Openly Gay Public
Officials in American Communities,” Urban Affairs Review (1999), pp. 188-209
• Donald Haider-Markel, Mark R. Joslyn, and Chad J. Kniss, “Minority Group Interests and
Political Representation: Gay Elected Officials in the Policy Process,” Journal of Politics
(2006), pp. 568-577
11/28 Non-Hispanic Whites as Subjects of Urban Politics Scholars
• Louise Seamster, “The White City: Race and Urban Politics,” Sociology Compass (2015),
pp 1049–1065
• Karen Kaufmann, “Vote Your Hopes, Not Your Fears: New York, 1965 to 1993,” from
The Urban Voter: Group Conflict & Mayoral Voting Behavior in American Cities (1999),
pp. 132-148
• Zoltan Hajnal, “White Residents, Black Incumbents, and a Declining Racial Divide,”
American Political Science Review (2001), pp. 603-617
• Derek Hyra, “The Back-to-the-City Movement: Neighborhood Development and Processes
of Political and Cultural Displacement,” Urban Studies (2015), pp. 1753-1768

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11/30-12/1 From Elites to Regimes: General Theories of Political Power in Cities
• Bernard Ross and Myron Levine, Urban Politics, pp. 103-125

• Floyd Hunter, “Location of Power in Regional City,” from Community Power Structure: A
Study of Decision Makers (1953), pp. 8-25
• Lewis Coser, “Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City, by Robert Dahl,”
COMMENTARY (1962), read all of the book review
• Harvey Molotch, “The City as a Growth Machine,” American Journal of Sociology (1976), pp.
310-318
• Clarence Stone, “Urban Regimes and the Capacity to Govern: A Political Economy Approach,”
Journal of Urban Affairs (1993), pp. 17-22

12/5 Concluding Remarks and Course Reflections

12/13 Examination #2