19761 BOOKS IN REVIEW 3 69

Books in Review . Jewel Bellush, Editor

Revenue Sharing MONITORING REVENUE SHARING. By

Richard P. Nathan, Allen D. Manvel and Susannah E. Calkins. The Brookings In- stitution, 1776 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20036, 1975.

General revenue sharing has been a con- troversial program since its inception Characterized as a “counter revolution” and “abdication” by Max Frankel, insofar as it permitted discretionary use of public money by the states and localities after many years of federal priority-setting, it has stimulated a broad range of critical comments during its four-plus years of operation. As the scheduled expiration date, December 31, 1976, approaches, the attacks have become sharper, the voices more insistent and the sources more di- versified. Such unusual partners as the League of Women Voters, the National Urban Coalition, the Center for Commu- nity Change and the Center for National Policy Review have joined previous groups such as the American Jewish Com- mittee, the Stanford Research Institute and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in charging that the program has discriminated against the rights of minorities, women, and low in- come groups, that public participation in budgetary decisions has been discouraged (if not altogether overlooked), that the funds were going to the wrong places and were being spent for unnecessary pur- poses.

For some time after the beginning of the program, evidence concerning the use of general revenue sharing funds was fragmentary and anecdotal. Well-publi- cized accounts reported public funds being used for all types of capital projects: tennis courts, bridle paths, dog runs and jails, for almost everything, in fact, ex- cept social services for poor urban dwell- ers.

The Brookings study, Mottitoring Rev- enue Sharing, is an enormous help in es- tablishing a reliable base of information with which to form judgements about the elimination or continuation of the program and possible changes to be made. The study was completed in 1974, at or about the midpoint of the program, and is massive. It is a well-organized, detailed analysis of the economic and political im- pacts of general revenue sharing derived from field research in 65 sample jurisdic- tions (eight states, 29 municipalities, 21 counties, six townships, and one Indian tribe), and national statistics on state and local finance.

The study focuses on three basic ques- tions: what are the distributional effects of general revenue shar ing-or how are the funds being allocated; what are the fiscal effects-r what changes in state and local finances have occurred as a con- sequence of payments; and what are the political effects-in terms of state and local budgetary processes and govern- mental structure?

The authors’ findings bear out the crit- ics’ charges that shared revenue has been used to relieve fiscal pressures (k, to make ends meet) by larger and hard- pressed local governments in urban areas and has permitted “new spending” by wealthier and smaller local communities, that the program has encouraged the con- tinued existence of small jurisdictions with limited responsibilities, and that funds have been distributed to localities with marginal needs.

The authors recommend changes in the revenue sharing formula to remedy these and other deficiencies, including the re- placement of per capita income as a mea- sure of fiscal capacity, changes in distri- bution a t the lower level to permit in- creased aid to larger cities, and changes in the s, ”/3 pass-through formula for states and localities.

3 70 NATIONAL CIVIC REVIEW July

In the concluding chapter policy issues are raised concerning the treatment of large cities and poor states, the use of funds for “new” programs, and access to the decision-making process on the part of outside groups, which might well be included within an agenda of concerns for congressional lawmakers as they debate the extension of the program.

The study is particularly useful for its inclusion of data other than those derived from official sources and the systematic use which is made of the data. The anal- ysis is so valuable in fact that one won- ders why such a monitoring element is not included as a matter of course each time a new public program is undertaken. If the intent is to formulate well consid- ered decisions on the advisability of con- tinuing ongoing programs, it would seem sensible, if not absolutely essential, to include funding for systematic evaluation as an integral programmatic component,

JOAN ARON New York University

Political Parties and Politics

POPULAR IMAGES OF POLITICS: A Tax- onomy. By Dan Nimmo. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632, 1974. viii, 184 pp.

Nineteen seventy-six is a year of non- charismatic Presidential candidates. Can the American people take i t ? I t is some- what paradoxical that during these times of serious unemployment, budget crises, mounting inflation and other such eco- nomic woes, most conversations about the candidates on stage seem to focus on their images.

This small but interesting book ac- knowledges from the start that people’s responses to political symbols is what politics is mostly about, no matter the motives of politicians. The author at- tempts to classify how people think about their leaders and how they respond to

them as well as popular images concern- ing government, social movements, par- ties, pressure groups and policies. Images serve as the evaluative standards by which we define morals and allot prestige, by which we think and reveal our feelings toward political leaders, institutions and ideas.

Drawing on a wide body of material from sociology, psychology, social thought, and other behavioral sciences, Nimmo covers such vitally important topics as: how our political images are communicated, how we adopt our images, political images in mass society and the dramatic qualities of imagery. H e con- cludes that for the general public “poli- tics is a playful, expressive drama by which (i t) a i r (s) needs to be with others, needs to be liked, self-acceptance and self-doubts, aggressions, love and hate.”

The City THE DYNAMICS OF URBAN GOVERN-

MENT AND POLITICS. By Jay S. Goodman. Macmillan Publishing Company, 866 Third Avenue, New York 10022, 1975. viii, 413 pp.

This is a coherent and well-written book with good charts and a useful sum- mary on American cities. Most practical is the author’s review of the literature on several important controversies-govern- mental form and the importance of the population characteristics. While it offers no new theories or grand models, the best feature is its coverage of the key ele- ments we need to understand about mod- ern urban places. I t would serve as a good basic text for an urban course or for citizens anxious to have an overview of how cities function in this modern era.

Additional Books and Pamphlets

Cable Television ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF A CABLE SYS-