Search Results

Senior Officials in the German Federal Administration: Institutional Change and Positional Differentiation

Klaus H. Goetz

in Bureaucratic Elites in Western European States: A Comparative Analysis of Top Officials

This account of institutional change and positional differentiation of senior officials in Germany's Federal administration is presented in five sections. Section I, ‘Senior Officials and the ... More

This account of institutional change and positional differentiation of senior officials in Germany's Federal administration is presented in five sections. Section I, ‘Senior Officials and the Reassertion of Political Authority’, is introductory and discusses the causes and implications of change in the organization and in the political and administrative roles of the senior civil service; changes identified include party politicization, parliamentarization and federalization of the national policy process, modernization initiatives, European integration, and unification. Section II gives a brief survey of the Federal senior ministerial personnel (looking at pay grade and rank, and centrality), and section III considers paths to the top, paying particular attention to the procedures for recruitment and promotion and the consequences of weak formal structures for personnel planning and development. Following on from the definition of political craft as a defining attribute of effective top officials, section IV highlights the central position of political coordination units as training grounds in the Federal administration and comments on the informal positional differentiation that they encourage. The discussion concludes in section V with an assessment of the implications of the partition of the ministerial bureaucracy between Bonn and Berlin.Less

A Fair Deal or a Raw Deal?

Cybelle Fox

in Three Worlds of Relief: Race, Immigration, and the American Welfare State from the Progressive Era to the New Deal

This chapter focuses on the first New Deal and access to Federal Emergency Relief, as well as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, and the Civil Works Administration. ... More

This chapter focuses on the first New Deal and access to Federal Emergency Relief, as well as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, and the Civil Works Administration. Despite the New Deal's nationalizing reforms, intended largely to standardize relief policies across the country, local political economies and racial regimes continued to influence the administration of relief. Like blacks, Mexicans gained significantly greater access to relief during the New Deal, although they continued to face racial discrimination at the local level. Citizenship barriers were also typically strongest for local public work programs out West, and Mexican Americans were sometimes wrongly denied work relief on the assumption that they were non-citizens. The largest relief program during the first New Deal was the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), which brought blacks and Mexicans unprecedented access to relief.Less

Debt and Recovery: New Deal Housing Policy and the Making of National Mortgage Markets

Louis Hyman

in Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink

This chapter discusses the New Deal housing policy and the making of national mortgage markets. Though Franklin Roosevelt was sympathetic to housing the poor, his policies aimed, primarily, to grow ... More

This chapter discusses the New Deal housing policy and the making of national mortgage markets. Though Franklin Roosevelt was sympathetic to housing the poor, his policies aimed, primarily, to grow the economy and reduce unemployment. If this could be accomplished through housing the poor, all the better, but that was a secondary goal to restoring economic growth. Unlike the other housing programs of the New Deal, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) promised and achieved this growth. By 1939, investment in residential housing was nearly back to its 1929 levels. The flood of funds, guaranteed profits, and standardized policies initiated through the FHA changed the way banks operated forever, turning mortgages into nationally traded commodities—and in the process changing the way Americans related to banks and debt.Less

Taking the Fight National

James Robert Allison

in Sovereignty For Survival: American Energy Development and Indian Self-Determination

After successfully defending the Northern Cheyenne and Crow Reservations from non-Indian mining, American Indians launched a national campaign to prepare similarly situated energy tribes for the ... More

After successfully defending the Northern Cheyenne and Crow Reservations from non-Indian mining, American Indians launched a national campaign to prepare similarly situated energy tribes for the coming onslaught in energy demand. This chapter details those efforts that began with Northern Cheyenne and Crow leaders helping to organize a regional coalition of tribes to fight federally planned development on the Northern Plains. From this defensive alliance, energy tribes then turned to exploring options to mine their own minerals. They worked with federal agencies charged with expanding domestic energy production in the wake of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo and consulted energy experts familiar with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Ultimately, tribes nationwide formed the Council of Energy Resource Tribes to provide a unified Indian voice to federal energy policymakers, lobby for federal aid in developing tribal resources, and share information about energy development. After much confusion as to CERT’s primary purpose – including whether it was a cartel-like “Native American OPEC” – the organization evolved into a professional consulting firm that both worked with individual tribes to pursue specific mining projects and lobbied the federal government for beneficial grants and policies.Less

“Alert, Not Alarm” The First Ten Years, 1945–1955

Dee Garrison

in Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defense Never Worked

This chapter discusses President Harry Truman's reluctant creation of the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) in 1950 and the predominant role it assigned to women; the importance of the ... More

This chapter discusses President Harry Truman's reluctant creation of the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) in 1950 and the predominant role it assigned to women; the importance of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to civil defense history; and the content and purpose of early civil defense propaganda. It describes the reasons why Congress regularly cut civil defense funds by 80-90% during the Truman and early Eisenhower period. The chapter ends describing the United States' 1954 Pacific bomb test, called Bravo, which contaminated 7,000 square miles of the Pacific.Less

“No-Lining” and Neighborhood Erasure: Washington, D.C., and Downtown San Francisco Come to the Mission

Ocean Howell

in Making the Mission: Planning and Ethnicity in San Francisco

This chapter deals with New Deal home finance agencies, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and particularly the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), paying special attention to their role on ... More

This chapter deals with New Deal home finance agencies, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and particularly the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), paying special attention to their role on the West Coast. This perspective reveals that the practices of these agencies varied by region in ways that have not been appreciated. Most surprisingly, the HOLC described race in very different ways, depending upon region and upon city. For San Francisco all of this meant that the agencies did encourage disinvestment, though not in precisely the ways that urban historians have come to expect. While many have portrayed HOLC redlining as the death knell of a residential neighborhood, in San Francisco being shaded red on the Corporation's Residential Security Map was a poor predictor of an area's future prospects. The residential areas that could expect significant problems, stemming from a dearth of mortgage lending, were those that the HOLC did not survey at all--what this study refers to as the no-lined areas. The northern areas of the Mission District were no-lined, while the central Mission was shaded red on the maps. HOLC described the latter areas as white in spite of a large Latino presence.Less

The State Makes Credit

Richard Harris

in Building a Market: The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914-1960

During the Depression, the number of homes being built fell dramatically, creating a need for home improvement. Instead of buying or building anew, home owners had to content themselves with ... More

During the Depression, the number of homes being built fell dramatically, creating a need for home improvement. Instead of buying or building anew, home owners had to content themselves with modernizing and improving by doing their own repairs and conversions. In order to survive, suppliers of building materials were forced to diversify, advertise, and offer new service packages. As a result, the entire building supply industry had to cooperate in marketing home improvements. But it was only when the federal government, under the authority of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's National Housing Act (NHA) of 1934, created new forms of credit that the home improvement industry was revived. The NHA, which established the Federal Housing Administration, promoted the construction of suburban single-family dwellings by large builder-developers. Indeed, federal initiatives, particularly the Title I program, set in motion a remarkable boom in amateur building and home improvement after 1945.Less

Aftermath

Kathleen C. Engel and Patricia A. McCoy

in The Subprime Virus: Reckless Credit, Regulatory Failure, and Next Steps

This chapter describes efforts in 2009, under the new Obama administration, to deal with the effects of the subprime crisis. These include the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a ... More

This chapter describes efforts in 2009, under the new Obama administration, to deal with the effects of the subprime crisis. These include the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a $787 billion economic stimulus package; passage of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 in May to rein in the worst practices of credit card companies and clean up disclosures; stepped-up loan modifications; stabilization of the banking system; and long-term financial reforms. The chapter also details the emergence of “foreclosure rescue” companies who sought to exploit people behind on their mortgage payments; and the resurgence of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans.Less

Constructing the Tabula Rasa: Framing and the Political Construction of Crisis

Kevin Fox Gotham and Miriam Greenberg

in Crisis Cities: Disaster and Redevelopment in New York and New Orleans

Chapter 3 focuses on the period immediately following 9/11 and Katrina: the phase of recovery led by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). It identifies the framing strategies used ... More

Chapter 3 focuses on the period immediately following 9/11 and Katrina: the phase of recovery led by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). It identifies the framing strategies used to typify the two disasters, define the victims, assign responsibility for the traumatic conditions (diagnostic framing), and identify remedies and solutions (prognostic framing). The chapter analyses the highly divergent framing of the disasters and their victims in New York and New Orleans—the former framed as heroes of a global tragedy and the latter as victims of a “natural” disaster—and explores the policy implications and consequences of these framing strategies. Major effects of this reorganization included the privatization and devolution of emergency management policy and the creation of new regulations that sharply restricted aid itself. Despite the “positive” versus “negative” valence of the framing of New York and New Orleans following these two tragedies, both localities suffered comparable difficulties in accessing federal aid.Less

. Life and Times at Dyess

Fred C. Smith

in Trouble in Goshen: Plain Folk, Roosevelt, Jesus, and Marx in the Great Depression South

The Colonists set about to demonstrate middle-class attributes; they did. In Chapter IV, Life and Times at Dyess, the details of community building and civic pride, are paired with the struggle of ... More

The Colonists set about to demonstrate middle-class attributes; they did. In Chapter IV, Life and Times at Dyess, the details of community building and civic pride, are paired with the struggle of the bosses at Dyess to maintain control. More details about the dissolution of the Colony; the machinations of Governor Bailey; the agitation among the colonists and the alienation of some of them comprise the themes of this chapter. Life and Time at Dyess narrates the middle-class aspirations and attainment of the plain folk.Less

Housing for Defense

Sarah Jo Peterson

in Planning the Home Front: Building Bombers and Communities at Willow Run

As the federal government began to release funds for the construction of ships, tanks, and airplanes at industrial centers, the promise of jobs not only sparked mass migrations and created boom ... More

As the federal government began to release funds for the construction of ships, tanks, and airplanes at industrial centers, the promise of jobs not only sparked mass migrations and created boom communities but also highlighted the importance of adequate housing for the workers. On the eve of World War II, two competing plans for housing industrial workers emerged. Some favored large-scale developments that combined neighborhood planning and the mass production of apartments and row houses, but Pierre Blouke, architectual advisor to the federal government’s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), argued that the focus should be on improving the design of small houses and developing economical construction methods. As mobilization for national defense began to accelerate, conflicts arose. The protagonists ranged from the Federal Housing Administration to the CIO unions, particularly the United Auto Workers (UAW) which supported the “Camden Plan” proposed by union leaders but also suggested its own housing model called Defense City.Less

The New Deal on Main Street

in Modernizing Main Street: Architecture and Consumer Culture in the New Deal

In March 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt returned to Gainesville, Georgia. It was nearly two years since a devastating tornado destroyed most of downtown. Now, instead of the destruction and ... More

In March 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt returned to Gainesville, Georgia. It was nearly two years since a devastating tornado destroyed most of downtown. Now, instead of the destruction and debris that greeted him in 1936, Roosevelt found the town to be almost entirely rebuilt, with a new civic center and courthouse, new schools, and new utilities. All this became possible despite the Great Depression, thanks to Roosevelt's decision to make the reconstruction effort a showcase of New Deal programs, including those of the Public Works Administration, the Works Progress Administration, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and the National Emergency Council. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) helped Gainesville rebuild its “businesses houses.” Among New Deal efforts to assist small business, the FHA's program was unique. While its ends were the same as price regulation and market intervention—to stimulate the economy and encourage consumer spending—its means were far more tangible in a real and physical way as it promoted the modernization of Main Street storefronts.Less

City Building and Boundary Making

Andrew R. Highsmith

in Demolition Means Progress: Flint, Michigan, and the Fate of the American Metropolis

Between 1900 and 1940, Flint rose to prominence as the manufacturing hub for General Motors. As America’s national obsession with automobiles took root, Flint, a quintessential company town, ... More

Between 1900 and 1940, Flint rose to prominence as the manufacturing hub for General Motors. As America’s national obsession with automobiles took root, Flint, a quintessential company town, attracted tens of thousands of migrants to work in its manufacturing and assembly plants. This rapid, largely unplanned growth spawned a series of housing, utility, and public health emergencies that shocked company officials, city commissioners, and members of the local housing industry. The bulk of this chapter explores local efforts to resolve the housing crisis during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and the racial, spatial, and economic considerations that drove Flint’s interwar building program. During this period, local citizens and government administrators from the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) hardened the residential color line by encouraging the spread of racially restrictive housing covenants and formalizing mortgage redlining programs. By the beginning of World War II, redlining and other forms of policy-driven segregation had helped make Flint one of the most racially divided cities in the United States. Ironically, though, dozens of working-class suburbs just beyond Flint’s borders, many of them all white, also suffered during this period due to the FHA’s suburban redlining policies.Less

Auctions for the Safe, Efficient, and Equitable Allocation of Airspace System Resources

Michael O Ball, George L Donohue, and Karla Hoffman

in Combinatorial Auctions

This chapter focuses on the topic of auctions for the allotment of airport time slots and provides suggestions for mechanisms to use and expand the existing limited capacity safely and efficiently. ... More

This chapter focuses on the topic of auctions for the allotment of airport time slots and provides suggestions for mechanisms to use and expand the existing limited capacity safely and efficiently. It begins with a description of the history of the U.S. aviation system, describing and detailing the role of the Civil Aviation Board, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Federal Aviation Administration, and procedures for allocating landing time slots, along with an explanation of how market-clearing mechanisms are likely to solve problems faced by the current system. The chapter further discusses design principles and research questions for the day of operations slot exchange, as well as the medium-term exchange of slots, and examines several issues that require consideration while evaluating a market-based day of operations exchange. It suggests that issues such as continuous degradation of safety levels and excessive delays can be addressed by putting an effective slot allocation mechanism in place.Less

Pushing Back

Joseph A. McCartin

in Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America

This chapter focuses on the birth of unionism among the ranks of air traffic controllers in the United States. It first examines President John F. Kennedy's Executive Order 10988, which gave workers ... More

This chapter focuses on the birth of unionism among the ranks of air traffic controllers in the United States. It first examines President John F. Kennedy's Executive Order 10988, which gave workers too many rights and unions too much power, and how it led air traffic controllers to organize. It then considers EO 10988's inadequacies and the Federal Aviation Administration's resistance to controller organization before turning to the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), especially how its Local R2–8 won exclusive recognition at the New York Center, displacing the Air Traffic Control Association. Finally, the chapter describes the efforts of New York area controllers, led by Mike Rock and Jack Maher, to form a regionwide controllers' organization.Less

Community impact assessment for US17

Anne Morris

in Running on empty: Transport, social exclusion and environmental justice.

This chapter presents a community-impact assessment (CIA) that was initiated in response to road-widening proposals for route US17, one of the oldest highways in the US. The assessment method was ... More

This chapter presents a community-impact assessment (CIA) that was initiated in response to road-widening proposals for route US17, one of the oldest highways in the US. The assessment method was modelled on Federal Highways Administration guidance and involved nine minority ethnic and low-income communities that would be impacted upon by the proposals. The removal of local personal-support services, the separation of family members, and the changing of traffic patterns will all have an impact on the community that cannot be gauged by simply looking at a map, measuring acreage, and counting structures to be taken. None of these things provide insight into its human foundation. These can only be understood by getting to know those who live and work in a community.Less

A Political Deal or Divine Providence?

Alison Collis Greene

in No Depression in Heaven: Religion and the Great Depression in the Mississippi Delta

Chapter 4 opens with the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt. Despite Roosevelt’s campaign vow to end Prohibition, white southern Protestants, Catholics, and Jews overwhelmingly supported his ... More

Chapter 4 opens with the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt. Despite Roosevelt’s campaign vow to end Prohibition, white southern Protestants, Catholics, and Jews overwhelmingly supported his candidacy, and they applauded his efforts to address the Great Depression once in office. Many clergy—conservative and liberal alike—declared the New Deal a religious imperative and traced its roots to the social teachings of the churches. Yet Roosevelt and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) head Harry Hopkins worked to separate the work of church and state as they crafted federal welfare policy. The chapter outlines the dramatic shift from voluntary to federal aid and examines the varied religious responses to this effort. Black clergy fought for their community members’ full inclusion in federal programs, while white clergy guarded their churches’ and region’s commitment to white supremacy with equal vigilance.Less

Strategy for Survival

Edward M. Geist

in Armageddon Insurance: Civil Defense in the United States and Soviet Union, 1945-1991

This chapter describes the evolution of the superpowers’ civil defense programs from the mid-1970s until the end of the Cold War. In the mid-1970s, the contrast between the USSR’s extensive civil ... More

This chapter describes the evolution of the superpowers’ civil defense programs from the mid-1970s until the end of the Cold War. In the mid-1970s, the contrast between the USSR’s extensive civil defense effort and its moribund U.S. counterpart led to considerable anxiety that the Kremlin might see civil defense as a usable source of strategic advantage. Rebuffed in their efforts to convince the USSR to negotiate limits on its civil defense program, the Carter administration decided to revive U.S. civil defense on the basis of a strategic evacuation concept dubbed “Crisis Relocation Planning,” which the Reagan administration also pursued. Simultaneously, civil defense for nuclear war and peacetime emergency management were combined into a single agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Ironically, not only did Soviet leaders not perceive their civil defense program as a useable source of advantage, they grew increasingly sceptical of its utility throughout this period. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster accelerated this process and led to the reinvention of Soviet civil defense as a peacetime emergency management organization.Less

De Facto Segregation: A National Myth

Richard Rothstein

in Facing Segregation: Housing Policy Solutions for a Stronger Society

The United States’ ability to desegregate metropolitan areas is hobbled by historical ignorance. Believing that segregation is de facto, resulting mostly from private prejudice and income ... More

The United States’ ability to desegregate metropolitan areas is hobbled by historical ignorance. Believing that segregation is de facto, resulting mostly from private prejudice and income differences, policymakers have failed to consider aggressive initiatives that are constitutionally required to remedy state-sponsored de jure segregation. First with the Public Works Administration, later with war housing built for defense-plant workers during World War II, and still later with the explicit acceptance of racial segregation by the 1949 Housing Act, the federal government created separate neighborhoods for blacks and for whites, often in cities that had not previously known such extreme racial segregation. Subsequently, whites left public housing when the Federal Housing Administration financed suburban development with requirements that builders exclude African Americans. Many other federal, state, and local government policies purposefully contributed to segregation but have never been remedied because policymakers are unfamiliar with this history and the obligations it has generated.Less