James Q. Wilson, editor, City Politics and Public Policy (John Wiley & Sons, 1968; paperback edition, 1968).

“In his introduction of City Politics and Public Policy (1968), Wilson noted that research on urban politics taught us ‘a great deal about who governs but surprising little about what difference it makes who governs.’ The ‘best empirical political science,’ he argued, ‘has tried to explain why one goal rather than another is served by government, and the consequences of serving that goal, or serving it in a particular way.’ This conception of political science (which he traced back to Aristotle) drove his turn from urban politics to crime and policing. For many residents of cities, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, that is where the rubber of government hit the road of community life.”
R. Shep Melnick (2012)