Book Reviews and Notices : American State and Local Government. By CLYDE F. SNIDER. (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. Pp. xiv, 639. $5.00.)

• Author: George C.S. Benson
• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Date: 01 March 1951
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591295100400155
• Subject Matter: Articles

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American State and Local Government. By CLYDE F. SNIDER. (New York:
Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. Pp. xiv, 639. $5.00.)
Without meaning to be contemptuous of a volume on which an able
scholar has devoted much time, the reviewer feels that this is another
example of a book which should not have been written.
It is a very long, and a very dull, review of literature regarding state
and local government. It undoubtedly contains information of substantial
value; nevertheless, a lengthy volume containing such information, with
no particular thesis to support and with no particular skeleton except
that of a relationship to state and local government, makes extremely
tedious reading.
The basic issues on the relationships between federal and state gov.
ernment are almost entirely ignored. Not much is said about the expansion
of national power. No danger is seen in the development of national-local
relationships. The pros and cons of unicameralism rate more discussion
than do the far more important problems of f ederal-state relations.
Political science is not going to move ahead so long as able writers
put their time into the making of dull volumes like this.
GEORGE C. S. BENSON.
Claremont Men’s College.
The Initiative and Referendum in California. By WINSTON W. CROUCH.
(Los Angeles: The Haynes Foundation. 1950. Pp. 56. 50c.)
In this booklet, Dr. Crouch gives a completely revised and expanded
account of his earlier studies of direct...