19671 BOOKS IN REVIEW 241

Books in Review . . Jewel Bellush, Editor

Federalism AMERICAN FEDERALISM : A View From

the States. By Daniel J . Elazar. Thomas Y. Crowell, 201 Park Avenue South, New York, 1966. xii, 228 pp. $2.50 (paperback).

Those concerned with state and local governments cannot possibly voice any nostalgia for the good old days, for these fields of scholarship were characterized by heavily legalistic texts, undigestible articles and dull school curricula. Re- cently, more political scientists, and among them a small breed of creative thinkers, have discovered the rich oppor- tunities of state and local governments as laboratories for comparative studies. Daniel Elazar’s book fits into this mold. What he has attempted here is to classify states as civic cultures (A la Verba and Almond), and, depending on what consti- tutes a state’s (or for that matter a city’s) civic culture, the consequences for the structure and operation of the political system and the shape and content of its policies. For years, this reviewer has tried to understand why such close neighbors as New York and New Jersey constitute such different happenings. Elazar’s an- swer is I, T and M.

I represents individualism-a political order rooted in the marketplace in which the basic public relationships flow from bargaining among individuals and groups acting out of personal interests. M constitutes the moralistic political

culture which highlights the public weal and the common good.

T stands for traditionalistic political culture which emerges from the tensions or perhaps uncertainties between both of the above. While this culture accepts a positive state, it is still trying to confine its role to maintaining the social order run by an elite of “right” families.

Which of these political cultures char- acterizes a state, influences the kind of

system it is and the public programs it projects? As with all classification schemes, we never find a “pure” type. Nevertheless, the author does stimulate new possibilities for empirical research such as the relationship between a state’s political culture and voting behavior, na- tional policy, urban issues, etc.

Finally, to those still crying that cen- tralization is destroying state govern- ments, the findings in this book reveal that states continue to play an unquestionably important role in the American system: “Practically speaking, the legislatures ex- ercise the same legal or formal controls over most federally aided programs as they do over those financed exclusively by the state.”

Additional Books and Pamphlets

(See ah- Researehefa Digest and other departments)

Congress

LABOR LOOKS AT THE 8 9 ~ ~ CONGRESS. AFL-CIO Department of Legislation, 815 Sixteenth Street N. W., Washington, D. C. 20006, November 1966. 92 pp.

Constitutions WASHINGTON STATE CONSTITUTION-

STUMBLING BLOCK OR STEPPING STONE? Proceedings of the Thirty-First Annual Summer Institute of Governmefit, 1966. Bureau of Governmental Research and Services, University of Washington, Seattle 98105, November 1966. 79 pp. $2.00.

County Government BALTIMORE COUNTY APPOINTED OFFI-

CIALS. Commission on Governmental Efficiency and Economy, 900 Mercantile Trust Building, Baltimore, January 1967. 30 pp. Charts.