The Patron-Recipient Relationship and Minority Politics in New York City

Bibliographic Data

ID4290900
AuthorsCharles V Hamilton (corresponding author)
Year1979
Volume94
Issue2
Pages211-227
Publication date1979-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Science Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3195 • E-ISSN: 1538-165X
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2149848
OpenAlexW2322035024
LanguageEN
Citations received11

This article examines the development and consequences of a particular style of politics that I call the relationship, as it operates in one urban area, New York City. The patron-recipient relationship is an outgrowth of public and private policies, particularly related to the antipoverty efforts of the 1960s. Those efforts had varying and, in some instances, conflicting interpretations as to their motivation and goals. These programs, however, had unanticipated political consequences and in fact depoliticized the constituencies they were designed to serve. This contention might appear to be more condemnatory than is intended; the policymakers who devised the programs or the various local authorities and groups that administered them had no intentions of curtailing the development of political power among target groups. In fact, as is widely known, the language of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 called for maximum feasible participation. And advocates of grass-roots participation have even suggested that poor people have, indeed, been politicized as a result of the programs. Professors Greenstone and Peterson have defended participatory, community control processes of the antipoverty programs.' In their study of community action programs in five cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York), Greenstone and Peterson develop a latent-manifest interest theory that suggests that such processes are especially important to blacks in their ef

Political science · Politics · Law · Public Administration · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub