Synopses & Reviews
This edited collection describes and discusses the advances of African Americans since the 1960s in the context of political philosophy, specifically, utilitarian liberalism revisited as 1980s and 1990s conservatism. Identifying the basic assumptions of utilitarian liberalism with respect to governance and representation, it uses these constructs to explain public policy outcomes in African-American communities. The three core themes are: governance and the role of the state; African American responses and strategies for empowerment; and policy adjustments of the state. It is a major contribution to the discourse on a problem central to contemporary public policy debate: the appropriate role of government in the regulation of public and private behavior to achieve a balance between freedom and justice.
Review:
...much-needed critique of the liberal state's machinations, machinations that until now have been thought to be the result of manipultaion by interest groups or elites. What this collection does, and does very well, is demystify two notions that have dominated public policy literature until now: that the problems of blacks were somehow due to African American culture and that traditional social welfare programs will "solve" the persisting poverty plaguing the black community.Perspectives On Political Science
Synopsis:
This edited collection describes and discusses the advances of African Americans since the 1960s in the context of political philosophy, specifically, utilitarian liberalism revisited as 1980s and 1990s conservatism.
About the Author
MARILYN E. LASHLEY is an Assistant Professor in the Afro-American Studies Program at the University of Maryland at College Park.MELANIE NJERI JACKSON is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Table of Contents
Theory and Concepts
Introduction by N. Jackson and M. Lashley
The Liberal State: What Retreat? An Examination of Philosophical Ambivalence and Continuity in Perspectives and Treatment of African Americans in the U.S. Political System by N. Jackson
Mythologies of "Cultural Politics" and the Discreet Charm of the Black Petite Bourgeoisie by A. Reed
Culture as Human Capital: Methodological and Policy Implications by R. Williams
African-American Empowerment Strategies and Responses
Reclaiming the State: Representative Government and Public Policy Access by M. Lashley
Who Represents the People? African Americans, Public Policy and Political Alienation during the Reagan-Bush Years by C. Herring
Governmental Retreat, the Dispossessed and the Politics of Black Self-reliant Development in the Age of Reaganism by F. Hayes
We Have Come This Far by Our Own Hands: A Tradition of Black Self-Help and Black Philanthropy, and the Growth of Corporate Philanthropic Giving to African Americans by M. Darling
The State Reinvents Itself
Discrimination in Mortgage Lending Markets as Rational Economic Behavior: Theory, Evidence and Public Policy by W. Jackson
Black Mecca Reconsidered: An Analysis of Atlanta's Post-Civil Rights Political Economy by C. Barnes
The Impact of Affirmative Policy on Correcting the Market Failures of Racial Discrimination: Are African Americans Better Off? by M. Lashley
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