Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Politics Of Municipal Reform, A. B. Villanueva

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

When modernization of city government is proposed in a community in which taxes ore going up, administrative authority is fragmented, municipal structure is clumsy, and citizen estimate of the city council is somewhat low, popular attitudes toward municipal reform are favorable. But those persons who have empires to defend and interests to protect in the city hall, will defend the status quo and resist the introduction of proposed innovations. Some may even fight back with all the fury irrational men can have at their command, and thus the reform movement produces strange side effects and unfortunate after effects.

Two Views Of Non-Voting: A Critique, Stephen L. Wasby

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

The view that non-voting is bad is contrasted with the view that non-voting can be functional for a political system. Works by Schattschneider and Berelson et al. are examined. Limitations in their arguments are pointed out, particularly the farmer's assertion that non-voters are being manipulated and the letters' emphasis on the short-run aspects of the system. The arguments are related to traditional conceptions of democracy.

Readership Of News About Politics In The Minneapolis Star And Tribune, 1950-1960, William L. Hathaway

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

The management of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, since World War II. has commissioned yearly studies of the newspapers' readers to learn how much attention was paid to the newspapers' content. An exploratory study was conducted of the data from the surveys made between 1950 and 1960 to measure the general levels of attention paid to news about politics, and to examine the variation of attention over time. Readers' preferences among several kinds of political news content were also noted.

The Effect Of Perception On Reactions To Reapportionment, Truman David Wood

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

A port of the legislative reapportionment conflict in Minnesota was a product of distorted perceptions by political actors such as the Minnesota Form Bureau . The Bureau's reaction to the Governor's Commission on Legislative Reapportionment was o result of the impact of the Bureau's ideology on its perception of the political system. The resultant failure of the Form Bureau President to serve on the Governor's Commission denied that organization access to on important step in the decision-making process concerning legislative reapportionment.

Constitutional Change In A Long-Depressed Community: A Case Study Of Duluth, Minnesota, Daniel J. Elazar

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Duluth, a "boom and bust" city with a marginal economy, has a unique position outside the mainstream of American life that adds a different dimension lo the understanding of community politics. Settlement patterns have contributed to the development of separate "business" and "labor" subcommunities that are substantially alienated from and hostile to one another and have rarely been able to cooperate in any civic endeavor. Operating within the framework of a political system caricaturing that of Minnesota as a whole, the two subcommunities reversed the pattern of local concern found in other cities; labor became the progressive force in local …

"Cosmopolitans" And "Locals" In Contemporary Community Politics, Daniel J. Elazar, Douglas St. Angelo

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Numerous products of recent social science research have revealed the reemergence of what seems to be a traditional pattern in American history, the lack of class consciousness in the political behavior of most Americans (Banfield 1961, Coleman 1957, Rogoff 1951: 406- 420, Rogoff 1953: 347-357, Warner, et al. , 1949).1 While this lack of class consciousness by no means precludes the more subtle influences of socio-economic class on matters political, it does limit the usefulness of the accepted class divisions developed by sociologists and anthropologists in the 1930's and 1940's in understanding the patterns of community politics (Lynd 1937, Parsons …

The Child-Benefit Theory: A Method Of Circumventing The Wall Of Separation Doctrine, Thomas L. Pahl

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

This paper examines two concepts in American constitutional history: the child-benefit theory and the doctrine of separation of church and state. Both concepts concern the position of the private school in American society. Neither expression is found in the original Constitution nor in any of its twenty-three amendments. Nowhere in that august document are found the following words: schools, educations, federal aid, compulsory education, textbooks, transportation, etc. Thus the present controversy concerning education bas been caused by an omission, intended or otherwise, on the part of the framers of the Constitution and has been developed due to judicial interpretation. Here, …

A Case Study In Practical Politics: The 1962 Contest In The 7th Congressional District Of Minnesota, Harding Noblitt

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

The objective of this paper is to make available a personal account of my experiences in a political campaign. It is presented in the hope that it will be a useful addition to the materials available to students of the political process-or of the Great Game of Politics. Let me briefly state the facts of this case study.

I am professor of political science at Concordia College in Moorhead, but I have ventured outside the ivory towers to play a small role in party politics. In the course of this activity I became, in 1962, the DemocraticFarmer- Labor Party's candidate …