Urbanization in a Federalist Context (PDF)

The emergence of America as a metropolitan-urban society has had profound consequences for every phase of national life, but nowhere has its effects been greater than in the domain of government. The growth of the city and its evolution into the metro-city has led to problems more complex and intense than any previously known. These problems command the concern and resources of all governments, federal as well as state and local; for as they have gained general attention they have emerged as national problems.

Coincident with national involvement in problems once held to be local has come a rise in federal government relations with the cities. Such relations, though in fact of long standing, have increased greatly in number and intensity since 1933. The result is a significant expansion in the practice of federalism, one marked by the emergence of the cities as partners in the federal system. Urbanization in a Federalist Context treats the expanded federal partnership in urban growth and argues that it is not a fact to be welcomed.

Martin traces the expansion of federal authority in the United States from the 1930s through the 1960s. He shows how local issues become national issues, and also how national authority expands, affecting all aspects of location government. The developments he explores reflect a federal system in the process of constant but evolutionary growth. Martin reveals why the relationship between the federal system and metro-cities is a flexible arrangement, capable of adjusting to new demands-but not without its own risks. This classic will be of continuing interest to those concerned about the consequences of the expansion of government authority in the United States.