Tag: Urban Politics

Topics

Books

Politics, Planning, and the Public Interest

– With Martin Meyerson, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1955.
“This book suggests a number of generalizations about public housing in this country. The moral of the story it tells is that planning of public housing is a meaningless intellectual… More

Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas

– With Morton M. Grodzins, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958.
Turning to Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas, I found the steadying hand of good, sound economics…. Banfield and Grodzins point out that the two-headed aspect of the… More

A Report on the Politics of Boston

– With Martha Derthick, Cambridge, MA: Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, 1960.
“This report was edited by Edward C. Banfield and Martha Derthick, the latter of whom went on to fame as a political scientist at the Brookings Institution and the University of… More

Political Influence: A New Theory of Urban Politics

– New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1961/1982. A reprint with a new introduction by James Q. Wilson was published in 2003.
In government, influence denotes one’s ability to get others to act, think, or feel as one intends. A mayor who persuades voters to approve a bond issue exercises influence. A… More

City Politics

– With James Q. Wilson, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963.
City Politics examines the structure of urban politics: the electoral system, the distribution of authority, the centralization of influence; and analyzes the forces and groups involved:… More

Government in Metropolis

– In New City, Man in Metropolis: A Christian Response, Chicago: Catholic Council on Working Life, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 15, 1963, pp. 7-9.

Boston: The Job Ahead

– With Martin Meyerson, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966.
“Two university scholars of outstanding ability, Martin Meyerson and Edward C. Banfield…. were invited by Boston business leaders to publish a series of 12 essays on key… More

The Negro in City Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), in Problems and Prospects of the Negro Movement, Raymond J. Murphy and Howard Elinson, eds., Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1966, pp. 376-394.

Book review of The City is the Frontier, by Charles Abrams

– Commentary, Vol. 41, No. 3, March 1966, pp. 93-95.
Excerpt: In 1960 the Ford Foundation made grants of $25,000 each to ten authorities on housing and planning, in order to induce them to set down their thoughts on urban renewal. One of the… More

Cleavages in Urban Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), in Politics in the Metropolis: A Reader in Conflict and Cooperation, Thomas R. Dye and Brett W. Hawkins, eds., Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1967, pp. 43-55.

Businessmen in Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), Democracy in Urban America, revised edition, Oliver P. Williams, ed., Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969, pp. 366-379.

The Unheavenly City

– Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1970.
“‘This book will probably strike many readers as the work of an ill-tempered and mean-spirited fellow.’ These words begin Edward Banfield’s 1970 classic, The… More

Power Structure and Civic Leadership

– (with James Q. Wilson), Strategies of Community Organization, Fred M. Cox and others, eds., Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock Publishers, 1970, pp. 112-122.

Model Cities: A Step Towards the New Federalism

– The Report of the President’s Task Force on Model Cities, U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1970.
Edward C. Banfield chaired this task force, which included James Q. Wilson (a former student of his), Richard Lugar (then Mayor of Indianapolis), Professor James Buchanan, and others.… More

How Many, and Who, Should Be Set At Liberty?

– In Civil Disorder and Violence: Essays on Causes and Cures, Harry M. Clor, ed., Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1972, pp. 27-45. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: It is now widely held, one might almost say officially held, that not only robberies, murders, and rapes but civil disorder in general arise from society’s neglect of and… More

A Critical View of the Urban Crisis

– in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 405, January 1973, pp. 7-14. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: From the farmhouse in Vermont where this is written, it is several miles to the nearest city, the population of which is about ten thousand, but one can find here most of the… More

Making a New Federal Program: Model Cities, 1964-68

– In Policy and Politics in America: Six Case Studies, Allan P. Sindler, ed. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1973), pp. 124-158. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: During the evening of the first full day of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency—at 7:40 P.M. on November 23,1963, to be precise—Walter Heller, chairman of the Council of Economic… More

The City and the Revolutionary Tradition

– (Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1974), speech delivered, April 11, 1974. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: It would be very pleasant on such an occasion as this to say that the American city has been and is a unique and unqualified success—and to be able to show that its successes… More

The Zoning of Enterprise

– Cato Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1982, pp. 339-354. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: This chapter seeks to make two principal points. The first is that upward mobility on the part of disadvantaged persons in the cities has been, is being, and doubtlessly will be,… More

Here the People Rule: Selected Essays

– New York: Plenum Press, 1985. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1991.
This book of essays includes Edward C. Banfield’s most important insights into the American political system. “What Banfield has done…has been to challenge the central… More

The Man Who Knew Too Much

– James Q. Wilson, The Weekly Standard, October 18, 1999.
Excerpt: IN THE INCREASINGLY DULL, narrow, methodologically obscure world of the social sciences, it is hard to find a mind that speaks not only to its students but to its nation. Most… More

Edward C. Banfield: An Appreciation (Salvatori Center Colloquium)

– Henry Salvatori Center Monograph, New Series, No. 3, Claremont McKenna College (April 2002).
Excerpt: The work that follows is devoted to Edward C. Banfield, in more ways than one. To begin with, it contains the proceedings of a Henry Salvatori Center colloquium that discussed… More

How an Idyllic Italian Village Was Crippled by Family-Centrism

– Kevin Kosar, "How an Idyllic Italian Village Was Crippled by Family-Centrism," Zocalo, Dec. 15, 2016.
Kevin Kosar revists Banfield’s landmark Moral Basis of a Backwards Society. Excerpt: More than 60 years ago, an American family arrived in a seemingly idyllic town in Southern Italy.… More

Return to the Unheavenly City

– Craig Trainor, "Return to the Unheavenly City," Quillette, May 17, 2020.
Revisiting Edward Banfield’s classic work in light of current public policy challenges. Excerpt: The late senator, statesman, sociologist, and New Yorker Daniel Patrick Moynihan once… More

Essays

Politics, Planning, and the Public Interest

– With Martin Meyerson, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1955.
“This book suggests a number of generalizations about public housing in this country. The moral of the story it tells is that planning of public housing is a meaningless intellectual… More

Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas

– With Morton M. Grodzins, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958.
Turning to Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas, I found the steadying hand of good, sound economics…. Banfield and Grodzins point out that the two-headed aspect of the… More

A Report on the Politics of Boston

– With Martha Derthick, Cambridge, MA: Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, 1960.
“This report was edited by Edward C. Banfield and Martha Derthick, the latter of whom went on to fame as a political scientist at the Brookings Institution and the University of… More

Political Influence: A New Theory of Urban Politics

– New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1961/1982. A reprint with a new introduction by James Q. Wilson was published in 2003.
In government, influence denotes one’s ability to get others to act, think, or feel as one intends. A mayor who persuades voters to approve a bond issue exercises influence. A… More

City Politics

– With James Q. Wilson, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963.
City Politics examines the structure of urban politics: the electoral system, the distribution of authority, the centralization of influence; and analyzes the forces and groups involved:… More

Government in Metropolis

– In New City, Man in Metropolis: A Christian Response, Chicago: Catholic Council on Working Life, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 15, 1963, pp. 7-9.

Boston: The Job Ahead

– With Martin Meyerson, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966.
“Two university scholars of outstanding ability, Martin Meyerson and Edward C. Banfield…. were invited by Boston business leaders to publish a series of 12 essays on key… More

The Negro in City Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), in Problems and Prospects of the Negro Movement, Raymond J. Murphy and Howard Elinson, eds., Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1966, pp. 376-394.

Book review of The City is the Frontier, by Charles Abrams

– Commentary, Vol. 41, No. 3, March 1966, pp. 93-95.
Excerpt: In 1960 the Ford Foundation made grants of $25,000 each to ten authorities on housing and planning, in order to induce them to set down their thoughts on urban renewal. One of the… More

Cleavages in Urban Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), in Politics in the Metropolis: A Reader in Conflict and Cooperation, Thomas R. Dye and Brett W. Hawkins, eds., Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1967, pp. 43-55.

Businessmen in Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), Democracy in Urban America, revised edition, Oliver P. Williams, ed., Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969, pp. 366-379.

The Unheavenly City

– Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1970.
“‘This book will probably strike many readers as the work of an ill-tempered and mean-spirited fellow.’ These words begin Edward Banfield’s 1970 classic, The… More

Power Structure and Civic Leadership

– (with James Q. Wilson), Strategies of Community Organization, Fred M. Cox and others, eds., Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock Publishers, 1970, pp. 112-122.

Model Cities: A Step Towards the New Federalism

– The Report of the President’s Task Force on Model Cities, U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1970.
Edward C. Banfield chaired this task force, which included James Q. Wilson (a former student of his), Richard Lugar (then Mayor of Indianapolis), Professor James Buchanan, and others.… More

How Many, and Who, Should Be Set At Liberty?

– In Civil Disorder and Violence: Essays on Causes and Cures, Harry M. Clor, ed., Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1972, pp. 27-45. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: It is now widely held, one might almost say officially held, that not only robberies, murders, and rapes but civil disorder in general arise from society’s neglect of and… More

A Critical View of the Urban Crisis

– in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 405, January 1973, pp. 7-14. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: From the farmhouse in Vermont where this is written, it is several miles to the nearest city, the population of which is about ten thousand, but one can find here most of the… More

Making a New Federal Program: Model Cities, 1964-68

– In Policy and Politics in America: Six Case Studies, Allan P. Sindler, ed. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1973), pp. 124-158. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: During the evening of the first full day of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency—at 7:40 P.M. on November 23,1963, to be precise—Walter Heller, chairman of the Council of Economic… More

The City and the Revolutionary Tradition

– (Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1974), speech delivered, April 11, 1974. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: It would be very pleasant on such an occasion as this to say that the American city has been and is a unique and unqualified success—and to be able to show that its successes… More

The Zoning of Enterprise

– Cato Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1982, pp. 339-354. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: This chapter seeks to make two principal points. The first is that upward mobility on the part of disadvantaged persons in the cities has been, is being, and doubtlessly will be,… More

Here the People Rule: Selected Essays

– New York: Plenum Press, 1985. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1991.
This book of essays includes Edward C. Banfield’s most important insights into the American political system. “What Banfield has done…has been to challenge the central… More

The Man Who Knew Too Much

– James Q. Wilson, The Weekly Standard, October 18, 1999.
Excerpt: IN THE INCREASINGLY DULL, narrow, methodologically obscure world of the social sciences, it is hard to find a mind that speaks not only to its students but to its nation. Most… More

Edward C. Banfield: An Appreciation (Salvatori Center Colloquium)

– Henry Salvatori Center Monograph, New Series, No. 3, Claremont McKenna College (April 2002).
Excerpt: The work that follows is devoted to Edward C. Banfield, in more ways than one. To begin with, it contains the proceedings of a Henry Salvatori Center colloquium that discussed… More

How an Idyllic Italian Village Was Crippled by Family-Centrism

– Kevin Kosar, "How an Idyllic Italian Village Was Crippled by Family-Centrism," Zocalo, Dec. 15, 2016.
Kevin Kosar revists Banfield’s landmark Moral Basis of a Backwards Society. Excerpt: More than 60 years ago, an American family arrived in a seemingly idyllic town in Southern Italy.… More

Return to the Unheavenly City

– Craig Trainor, "Return to the Unheavenly City," Quillette, May 17, 2020.
Revisiting Edward Banfield’s classic work in light of current public policy challenges. Excerpt: The late senator, statesman, sociologist, and New Yorker Daniel Patrick Moynihan once… More

Commentary

Politics, Planning, and the Public Interest

– With Martin Meyerson, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1955.
“This book suggests a number of generalizations about public housing in this country. The moral of the story it tells is that planning of public housing is a meaningless intellectual… More

Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas

– With Morton M. Grodzins, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958.
Turning to Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas, I found the steadying hand of good, sound economics…. Banfield and Grodzins point out that the two-headed aspect of the… More

A Report on the Politics of Boston

– With Martha Derthick, Cambridge, MA: Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, 1960.
“This report was edited by Edward C. Banfield and Martha Derthick, the latter of whom went on to fame as a political scientist at the Brookings Institution and the University of… More

Political Influence: A New Theory of Urban Politics

– New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1961/1982. A reprint with a new introduction by James Q. Wilson was published in 2003.
In government, influence denotes one’s ability to get others to act, think, or feel as one intends. A mayor who persuades voters to approve a bond issue exercises influence. A… More

City Politics

– With James Q. Wilson, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963.
City Politics examines the structure of urban politics: the electoral system, the distribution of authority, the centralization of influence; and analyzes the forces and groups involved:… More

Government in Metropolis

– In New City, Man in Metropolis: A Christian Response, Chicago: Catholic Council on Working Life, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 15, 1963, pp. 7-9.

Boston: The Job Ahead

– With Martin Meyerson, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966.
“Two university scholars of outstanding ability, Martin Meyerson and Edward C. Banfield…. were invited by Boston business leaders to publish a series of 12 essays on key… More

The Negro in City Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), in Problems and Prospects of the Negro Movement, Raymond J. Murphy and Howard Elinson, eds., Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1966, pp. 376-394.

Book review of The City is the Frontier, by Charles Abrams

– Commentary, Vol. 41, No. 3, March 1966, pp. 93-95.
Excerpt: In 1960 the Ford Foundation made grants of $25,000 each to ten authorities on housing and planning, in order to induce them to set down their thoughts on urban renewal. One of the… More

Cleavages in Urban Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), in Politics in the Metropolis: A Reader in Conflict and Cooperation, Thomas R. Dye and Brett W. Hawkins, eds., Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1967, pp. 43-55.

Businessmen in Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), Democracy in Urban America, revised edition, Oliver P. Williams, ed., Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969, pp. 366-379.

The Unheavenly City

– Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1970.
“‘This book will probably strike many readers as the work of an ill-tempered and mean-spirited fellow.’ These words begin Edward Banfield’s 1970 classic, The… More

Power Structure and Civic Leadership

– (with James Q. Wilson), Strategies of Community Organization, Fred M. Cox and others, eds., Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock Publishers, 1970, pp. 112-122.

Model Cities: A Step Towards the New Federalism

– The Report of the President’s Task Force on Model Cities, U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1970.
Edward C. Banfield chaired this task force, which included James Q. Wilson (a former student of his), Richard Lugar (then Mayor of Indianapolis), Professor James Buchanan, and others.… More

How Many, and Who, Should Be Set At Liberty?

– In Civil Disorder and Violence: Essays on Causes and Cures, Harry M. Clor, ed., Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1972, pp. 27-45. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: It is now widely held, one might almost say officially held, that not only robberies, murders, and rapes but civil disorder in general arise from society’s neglect of and… More

A Critical View of the Urban Crisis

– in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 405, January 1973, pp. 7-14. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: From the farmhouse in Vermont where this is written, it is several miles to the nearest city, the population of which is about ten thousand, but one can find here most of the… More

Making a New Federal Program: Model Cities, 1964-68

– In Policy and Politics in America: Six Case Studies, Allan P. Sindler, ed. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1973), pp. 124-158. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: During the evening of the first full day of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency—at 7:40 P.M. on November 23,1963, to be precise—Walter Heller, chairman of the Council of Economic… More

The City and the Revolutionary Tradition

– (Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1974), speech delivered, April 11, 1974. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: It would be very pleasant on such an occasion as this to say that the American city has been and is a unique and unqualified success—and to be able to show that its successes… More

The Zoning of Enterprise

– Cato Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1982, pp. 339-354. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: This chapter seeks to make two principal points. The first is that upward mobility on the part of disadvantaged persons in the cities has been, is being, and doubtlessly will be,… More

Here the People Rule: Selected Essays

– New York: Plenum Press, 1985. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1991.
This book of essays includes Edward C. Banfield’s most important insights into the American political system. “What Banfield has done…has been to challenge the central… More

The Man Who Knew Too Much

– James Q. Wilson, The Weekly Standard, October 18, 1999.
Excerpt: IN THE INCREASINGLY DULL, narrow, methodologically obscure world of the social sciences, it is hard to find a mind that speaks not only to its students but to its nation. Most… More

Edward C. Banfield: An Appreciation (Salvatori Center Colloquium)

– Henry Salvatori Center Monograph, New Series, No. 3, Claremont McKenna College (April 2002).
Excerpt: The work that follows is devoted to Edward C. Banfield, in more ways than one. To begin with, it contains the proceedings of a Henry Salvatori Center colloquium that discussed… More

How an Idyllic Italian Village Was Crippled by Family-Centrism

– Kevin Kosar, "How an Idyllic Italian Village Was Crippled by Family-Centrism," Zocalo, Dec. 15, 2016.
Kevin Kosar revists Banfield’s landmark Moral Basis of a Backwards Society. Excerpt: More than 60 years ago, an American family arrived in a seemingly idyllic town in Southern Italy.… More

Return to the Unheavenly City

– Craig Trainor, "Return to the Unheavenly City," Quillette, May 17, 2020.
Revisiting Edward Banfield’s classic work in light of current public policy challenges. Excerpt: The late senator, statesman, sociologist, and New Yorker Daniel Patrick Moynihan once… More

Multimedia

Politics, Planning, and the Public Interest

– With Martin Meyerson, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1955.
“This book suggests a number of generalizations about public housing in this country. The moral of the story it tells is that planning of public housing is a meaningless intellectual… More

Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas

– With Morton M. Grodzins, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958.
Turning to Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas, I found the steadying hand of good, sound economics…. Banfield and Grodzins point out that the two-headed aspect of the… More

A Report on the Politics of Boston

– With Martha Derthick, Cambridge, MA: Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, 1960.
“This report was edited by Edward C. Banfield and Martha Derthick, the latter of whom went on to fame as a political scientist at the Brookings Institution and the University of… More

Political Influence: A New Theory of Urban Politics

– New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1961/1982. A reprint with a new introduction by James Q. Wilson was published in 2003.
In government, influence denotes one’s ability to get others to act, think, or feel as one intends. A mayor who persuades voters to approve a bond issue exercises influence. A… More

City Politics

– With James Q. Wilson, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963.
City Politics examines the structure of urban politics: the electoral system, the distribution of authority, the centralization of influence; and analyzes the forces and groups involved:… More

Government in Metropolis

– In New City, Man in Metropolis: A Christian Response, Chicago: Catholic Council on Working Life, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 15, 1963, pp. 7-9.

Boston: The Job Ahead

– With Martin Meyerson, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966.
“Two university scholars of outstanding ability, Martin Meyerson and Edward C. Banfield…. were invited by Boston business leaders to publish a series of 12 essays on key… More

The Negro in City Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), in Problems and Prospects of the Negro Movement, Raymond J. Murphy and Howard Elinson, eds., Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1966, pp. 376-394.

Book review of The City is the Frontier, by Charles Abrams

– Commentary, Vol. 41, No. 3, March 1966, pp. 93-95.
Excerpt: In 1960 the Ford Foundation made grants of $25,000 each to ten authorities on housing and planning, in order to induce them to set down their thoughts on urban renewal. One of the… More

Cleavages in Urban Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), in Politics in the Metropolis: A Reader in Conflict and Cooperation, Thomas R. Dye and Brett W. Hawkins, eds., Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1967, pp. 43-55.

Businessmen in Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), Democracy in Urban America, revised edition, Oliver P. Williams, ed., Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969, pp. 366-379.

The Unheavenly City

– Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1970.
“‘This book will probably strike many readers as the work of an ill-tempered and mean-spirited fellow.’ These words begin Edward Banfield’s 1970 classic, The… More

Power Structure and Civic Leadership

– (with James Q. Wilson), Strategies of Community Organization, Fred M. Cox and others, eds., Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock Publishers, 1970, pp. 112-122.

Model Cities: A Step Towards the New Federalism

– The Report of the President’s Task Force on Model Cities, U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1970.
Edward C. Banfield chaired this task force, which included James Q. Wilson (a former student of his), Richard Lugar (then Mayor of Indianapolis), Professor James Buchanan, and others.… More

How Many, and Who, Should Be Set At Liberty?

– In Civil Disorder and Violence: Essays on Causes and Cures, Harry M. Clor, ed., Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1972, pp. 27-45. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: It is now widely held, one might almost say officially held, that not only robberies, murders, and rapes but civil disorder in general arise from society’s neglect of and… More

A Critical View of the Urban Crisis

– in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 405, January 1973, pp. 7-14. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: From the farmhouse in Vermont where this is written, it is several miles to the nearest city, the population of which is about ten thousand, but one can find here most of the… More

Making a New Federal Program: Model Cities, 1964-68

– In Policy and Politics in America: Six Case Studies, Allan P. Sindler, ed. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1973), pp. 124-158. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: During the evening of the first full day of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency—at 7:40 P.M. on November 23,1963, to be precise—Walter Heller, chairman of the Council of Economic… More

The City and the Revolutionary Tradition

– (Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1974), speech delivered, April 11, 1974. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: It would be very pleasant on such an occasion as this to say that the American city has been and is a unique and unqualified success—and to be able to show that its successes… More

The Zoning of Enterprise

– Cato Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1982, pp. 339-354. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: This chapter seeks to make two principal points. The first is that upward mobility on the part of disadvantaged persons in the cities has been, is being, and doubtlessly will be,… More

Here the People Rule: Selected Essays

– New York: Plenum Press, 1985. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1991.
This book of essays includes Edward C. Banfield’s most important insights into the American political system. “What Banfield has done…has been to challenge the central… More

The Man Who Knew Too Much

– James Q. Wilson, The Weekly Standard, October 18, 1999.
Excerpt: IN THE INCREASINGLY DULL, narrow, methodologically obscure world of the social sciences, it is hard to find a mind that speaks not only to its students but to its nation. Most… More

Edward C. Banfield: An Appreciation (Salvatori Center Colloquium)

– Henry Salvatori Center Monograph, New Series, No. 3, Claremont McKenna College (April 2002).
Excerpt: The work that follows is devoted to Edward C. Banfield, in more ways than one. To begin with, it contains the proceedings of a Henry Salvatori Center colloquium that discussed… More

How an Idyllic Italian Village Was Crippled by Family-Centrism

– Kevin Kosar, "How an Idyllic Italian Village Was Crippled by Family-Centrism," Zocalo, Dec. 15, 2016.
Kevin Kosar revists Banfield’s landmark Moral Basis of a Backwards Society. Excerpt: More than 60 years ago, an American family arrived in a seemingly idyllic town in Southern Italy.… More

Return to the Unheavenly City

– Craig Trainor, "Return to the Unheavenly City," Quillette, May 17, 2020.
Revisiting Edward Banfield’s classic work in light of current public policy challenges. Excerpt: The late senator, statesman, sociologist, and New Yorker Daniel Patrick Moynihan once… More

Teaching

Politics, Planning, and the Public Interest

– With Martin Meyerson, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1955.
“This book suggests a number of generalizations about public housing in this country. The moral of the story it tells is that planning of public housing is a meaningless intellectual… More

Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas

– With Morton M. Grodzins, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958.
Turning to Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas, I found the steadying hand of good, sound economics…. Banfield and Grodzins point out that the two-headed aspect of the… More

A Report on the Politics of Boston

– With Martha Derthick, Cambridge, MA: Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, 1960.
“This report was edited by Edward C. Banfield and Martha Derthick, the latter of whom went on to fame as a political scientist at the Brookings Institution and the University of… More

Political Influence: A New Theory of Urban Politics

– New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1961/1982. A reprint with a new introduction by James Q. Wilson was published in 2003.
In government, influence denotes one’s ability to get others to act, think, or feel as one intends. A mayor who persuades voters to approve a bond issue exercises influence. A… More

City Politics

– With James Q. Wilson, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963.
City Politics examines the structure of urban politics: the electoral system, the distribution of authority, the centralization of influence; and analyzes the forces and groups involved:… More

Government in Metropolis

– In New City, Man in Metropolis: A Christian Response, Chicago: Catholic Council on Working Life, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 15, 1963, pp. 7-9.

Boston: The Job Ahead

– With Martin Meyerson, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966.
“Two university scholars of outstanding ability, Martin Meyerson and Edward C. Banfield…. were invited by Boston business leaders to publish a series of 12 essays on key… More

The Negro in City Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), in Problems and Prospects of the Negro Movement, Raymond J. Murphy and Howard Elinson, eds., Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1966, pp. 376-394.

Book review of The City is the Frontier, by Charles Abrams

– Commentary, Vol. 41, No. 3, March 1966, pp. 93-95.
Excerpt: In 1960 the Ford Foundation made grants of $25,000 each to ten authorities on housing and planning, in order to induce them to set down their thoughts on urban renewal. One of the… More

Cleavages in Urban Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), in Politics in the Metropolis: A Reader in Conflict and Cooperation, Thomas R. Dye and Brett W. Hawkins, eds., Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1967, pp. 43-55.

Businessmen in Politics

– (with James Q. Wilson), Democracy in Urban America, revised edition, Oliver P. Williams, ed., Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969, pp. 366-379.

The Unheavenly City

– Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1970.
“‘This book will probably strike many readers as the work of an ill-tempered and mean-spirited fellow.’ These words begin Edward Banfield’s 1970 classic, The… More

Power Structure and Civic Leadership

– (with James Q. Wilson), Strategies of Community Organization, Fred M. Cox and others, eds., Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock Publishers, 1970, pp. 112-122.

Model Cities: A Step Towards the New Federalism

– The Report of the President’s Task Force on Model Cities, U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1970.
Edward C. Banfield chaired this task force, which included James Q. Wilson (a former student of his), Richard Lugar (then Mayor of Indianapolis), Professor James Buchanan, and others.… More

How Many, and Who, Should Be Set At Liberty?

– In Civil Disorder and Violence: Essays on Causes and Cures, Harry M. Clor, ed., Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1972, pp. 27-45. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: It is now widely held, one might almost say officially held, that not only robberies, murders, and rapes but civil disorder in general arise from society’s neglect of and… More

A Critical View of the Urban Crisis

– in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 405, January 1973, pp. 7-14. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: From the farmhouse in Vermont where this is written, it is several miles to the nearest city, the population of which is about ten thousand, but one can find here most of the… More

Making a New Federal Program: Model Cities, 1964-68

– In Policy and Politics in America: Six Case Studies, Allan P. Sindler, ed. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1973), pp. 124-158. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: During the evening of the first full day of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency—at 7:40 P.M. on November 23,1963, to be precise—Walter Heller, chairman of the Council of Economic… More

The City and the Revolutionary Tradition

– (Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1974), speech delivered, April 11, 1974. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: It would be very pleasant on such an occasion as this to say that the American city has been and is a unique and unqualified success—and to be able to show that its successes… More

The Zoning of Enterprise

– Cato Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1982, pp. 339-354. Reprinted in Edward C. Banfield, Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (Washington, DC: AEI, 1991).
Abstract: This chapter seeks to make two principal points. The first is that upward mobility on the part of disadvantaged persons in the cities has been, is being, and doubtlessly will be,… More

Here the People Rule: Selected Essays

– New York: Plenum Press, 1985. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1991.
This book of essays includes Edward C. Banfield’s most important insights into the American political system. “What Banfield has done…has been to challenge the central… More

The Man Who Knew Too Much

– James Q. Wilson, The Weekly Standard, October 18, 1999.
Excerpt: IN THE INCREASINGLY DULL, narrow, methodologically obscure world of the social sciences, it is hard to find a mind that speaks not only to its students but to its nation. Most… More

Edward C. Banfield: An Appreciation (Salvatori Center Colloquium)

– Henry Salvatori Center Monograph, New Series, No. 3, Claremont McKenna College (April 2002).
Excerpt: The work that follows is devoted to Edward C. Banfield, in more ways than one. To begin with, it contains the proceedings of a Henry Salvatori Center colloquium that discussed… More

How an Idyllic Italian Village Was Crippled by Family-Centrism

– Kevin Kosar, "How an Idyllic Italian Village Was Crippled by Family-Centrism," Zocalo, Dec. 15, 2016.
Kevin Kosar revists Banfield’s landmark Moral Basis of a Backwards Society. Excerpt: More than 60 years ago, an American family arrived in a seemingly idyllic town in Southern Italy.… More

Return to the Unheavenly City

– Craig Trainor, "Return to the Unheavenly City," Quillette, May 17, 2020.
Revisiting Edward Banfield’s classic work in light of current public policy challenges. Excerpt: The late senator, statesman, sociologist, and New Yorker Daniel Patrick Moynihan once… More