| How Local Politics Shape Federal Policy: Business, Power, and the Environment in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles Contributor(s): Elkind, Sarah S. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1469618974 ISBN-13: 9781469618975 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press OUR PRICE: $35.63 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2014 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Business & Economics | Corporate & Business History - General - Business & Economics | Environmental Economics - Political Science | Public Policy - Environmental Policy |
| Dewey: 333.910 |
| LCCN: 2010052561 |
| Series: Luther H. Hodges JR. and Luther H. Hodges Sr. Series on Busi |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 5.4" W x 8.4" (0.80 lbs) 288 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Focusing on five Los Angeles environmental policy debates between 1920 and 1950, Sarah Elkind investigates how practices in American municipal government gave business groups political legitimacy at the local level as well as unanticipated influence over federal politics. Los Angeles's struggles with oil drilling, air pollution, flooding, and water and power supplies expose the clout business has had over government. Revealing the huge disparities between big business groups and individual community members in power, influence, and the ability to participate in policy debates, Elkind shows that business groups secured their political power by providing Los Angeles authorities with much-needed services, including studying emerging problems and framing public debates. As a result, government officials came to view business interests as the public interest. When federal agencies looked to local powerbrokers for project ideas and political support, local business interests influenced federal policy, too. Los Angeles, with its many environmental problems and its dependence upon the federal government, provides a distillation of national urban trends, Elkind argues, and is thus an ideal jumping-off point for understanding environmental politics and the power of business in the middle of the twentieth century. |
Contributor Bio(s): Elkind, Sarah S.: - Sarah S. Elkind is associate professor of history and former director of environmental studies at San Diego State University. She is author of Bay Cities and Water Politics: The Battle for Resources in Boston and Oakland, which won the Abel Wolman Prize from the Public Works Historical Society. |