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Mayors and the Challenge of Urban Leadership

Richard M. Flanagan

Big city mayors rank among the most powerful and colorful politicians in America. Yet few books focus on the leadership challenges the occupants of the office face. Mayors and the Challenge of Urban Leadership examines twelve case studies of mayoral leadership in seven cities, from the New Deal era to the beginning of the 21st century.

The prospects for mayoral success or failure are driven by how mayors manage the fit between political commitments and the broader patterns of political competition. City Hall powerhouses like Richard J. Daley of Chicago (1954-76), David Lawrence of Pittsburgh (1946-58), Tom Bradley of Lost Angeles (1973-83), and Robert F. Wagner of New York (1954-65) came to power in times of political crisis. They realigned politics in their cities to reinvigorate municipal government and bolster their power. In contrast, mayors with less redoubtable reputations like Mayors Sam Yorty of Los Angeles (1961-73), Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland (1977-79), Jane Byrne of Chicago (1979-83), and Frank Rizzo of Philadelphia (1972-1980) were outsiders who lost their battles to challenge powerful political coalitions in their cities.

The new breed mayors of the 1990s—among them Rudy Giuliani of New York, Dennis Archer of Detroit, and Ed Rendell of Philadelphia—used modern campaign and governing techniques and scored surprising policy and political victories as a result.

Mayors and the Challenge of Urban Leadership concludes with a discussion of Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, elected in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, as an exemplar of the modern style of governing big cities in the 21st century.
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University Press of America
Pages: 230 • Trim: 6½ x 8½
978-0-7618-2895-2 • Paperback • November 2004 • $65.99 • (£51.00)
978-1-4617-4092-6 • eBook • November 2004 • $62.50 • (£48.00)
Subjects: Political Science / American Government / Local
Richard M. Flanagan is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. Professor Flanagan holds a doctorate in Political Science from Rutgers University.
Chapter 1 List of Tables
Chapter 2 Preface
Chapter 3 Acknowledgments
Chapter 4 Bringing the Mayors Back In
Chapter 5 City Hall Powerhouses: The Politics of Reconstruction
Chapter 6 City Hall Masters: Reconstructive Variations
Chapter 7 Conflict and Crisis at City Hall: The Politics of Preemption
Chapter 8 Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York: The Case of Preemptive Greatness
Chapter 9 The Modern American Mayoralty
Chapter 10 Index
[Flanagan's mayoral leadership] case studies…are consistently interesting, engagingly well written, and instructive.
— Richard E. DeLeon, San Francisco State University; Political Science Quarterly


It is useful to start and finish with Richard Flanagan, a political scientist who provides a broad framework for understanding mayors from the New Deal to the present and offers incisive portraits of both successful and unsuccessful mayors.
— James H. Svara, Arizona State University; Public Administration Review


This well-written monograph on mayoral leadership in selected large U.S. cities provides several insights into an understudied and insufficiently appreciated elective executive office. Summing Up: RECOMMENDED. All four-year university libraries and public libraries in the cities with mayors featured.
— E.T. Jones, University of Missouri?St. Louis; Choice Reviews


For a variety of reasons, there are relatively few comparative studies of mayoral leadership. Flanagan's work helps to fill this void...The author's attempt to create a 'unified field theory' of executive politics by applying presidential theories to mayoral politics is to be applauded...Political scientists need to do more work that examines how the mayors of multiple major cities function. The great virtue of Mayors and the Challenge of Urban Leadership is that it helps to fill the void.
— Andrew McNitt, Eastern Illinois University; Perspectives on Politics


Mayors and the Challenge of Urban Leadership

Cover Image
Paperback
Summary
Summary
  • Big city mayors rank among the most powerful and colorful politicians in America. Yet few books focus on the leadership challenges the occupants of the office face. Mayors and the Challenge of Urban Leadership examines twelve case studies of mayoral leadership in seven cities, from the New Deal era to the beginning of the 21st century.

    The prospects for mayoral success or failure are driven by how mayors manage the fit between political commitments and the broader patterns of political competition. City Hall powerhouses like Richard J. Daley of Chicago (1954-76), David Lawrence of Pittsburgh (1946-58), Tom Bradley of Lost Angeles (1973-83), and Robert F. Wagner of New York (1954-65) came to power in times of political crisis. They realigned politics in their cities to reinvigorate municipal government and bolster their power. In contrast, mayors with less redoubtable reputations like Mayors Sam Yorty of Los Angeles (1961-73), Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland (1977-79), Jane Byrne of Chicago (1979-83), and Frank Rizzo of Philadelphia (1972-1980) were outsiders who lost their battles to challenge powerful political coalitions in their cities.

    The new breed mayors of the 1990s—among them Rudy Giuliani of New York, Dennis Archer of Detroit, and Ed Rendell of Philadelphia—used modern campaign and governing techniques and scored surprising policy and political victories as a result.

    Mayors and the Challenge of Urban Leadership concludes with a discussion of Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, elected in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, as an exemplar of the modern style of governing big cities in the 21st century.
Details
Details
  • University Press of America
    Pages: 230 • Trim: 6½ x 8½
    978-0-7618-2895-2 • Paperback • November 2004 • $65.99 • (£51.00)
    978-1-4617-4092-6 • eBook • November 2004 • $62.50 • (£48.00)
    Subjects: Political Science / American Government / Local
Author
Author
  • Richard M. Flanagan is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. Professor Flanagan holds a doctorate in Political Science from Rutgers University.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Chapter 1 List of Tables
    Chapter 2 Preface
    Chapter 3 Acknowledgments
    Chapter 4 Bringing the Mayors Back In
    Chapter 5 City Hall Powerhouses: The Politics of Reconstruction
    Chapter 6 City Hall Masters: Reconstructive Variations
    Chapter 7 Conflict and Crisis at City Hall: The Politics of Preemption
    Chapter 8 Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York: The Case of Preemptive Greatness
    Chapter 9 The Modern American Mayoralty
    Chapter 10 Index
Reviews
Reviews
  • [Flanagan's mayoral leadership] case studies…are consistently interesting, engagingly well written, and instructive.
    — Richard E. DeLeon, San Francisco State University; Political Science Quarterly


    It is useful to start and finish with Richard Flanagan, a political scientist who provides a broad framework for understanding mayors from the New Deal to the present and offers incisive portraits of both successful and unsuccessful mayors.
    — James H. Svara, Arizona State University; Public Administration Review


    This well-written monograph on mayoral leadership in selected large U.S. cities provides several insights into an understudied and insufficiently appreciated elective executive office. Summing Up: RECOMMENDED. All four-year university libraries and public libraries in the cities with mayors featured.
    — E.T. Jones, University of Missouri?St. Louis; Choice Reviews


    For a variety of reasons, there are relatively few comparative studies of mayoral leadership. Flanagan's work helps to fill this void...The author's attempt to create a 'unified field theory' of executive politics by applying presidential theories to mayoral politics is to be applauded...Political scientists need to do more work that examines how the mayors of multiple major cities function. The great virtue of Mayors and the Challenge of Urban Leadership is that it helps to fill the void.
    — Andrew McNitt, Eastern Illinois University; Perspectives on Politics


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