Book Reviews: The Use of the Licensing Power by the City of Chicago. Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, Vol. XXXIII, Nos. 2-3. By MALCOLM B. PARSONS. (Urbana: The University of Illinois Press. 1952. Pp. x, 198. $4.50 cloth; $3.50 paper.)

• Date: 01 December 1952
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295200500458
• Author: Frederick C. Irion
• Published date: 01 December 1952
• Subject Matter: Articles

725

open

to

facilitate

justifiable

discharges.

The

civil

service

organization

should

not

be

outside

the

administrative

hierarchy;

it

should

be

moved

in.

Pay

increases

have

too

often

been

on

an

&dquo;across-the-board&dquo;

basis;

effectiveness

on

the

job

should

be

the

principal

test.

Too

often

employee

grievances

have

been

answered

with

anti-strike

laws

or

with

no

answer

at

all;

machinery

should

be

set

up

for

an

understanding

two-way

employer-

employee

relationship.

Perhaps

the

greatest

threat

to

recruiting

the

most

able

people

are

loyalty

programs;

there

can

be

agreement

on

objectives,

but

how

can

adequate

loyalty-check

administrative

procedures

be

developed?

These

are

samples

of

the

kinds

of

problems

and

solutions

to

which

the

author

devotes

his

attention.

For

too

long,

says

Dr.

Carpenter,

merit

systems

have

been

considered

&dquo;sacred

cows.&dquo;

The

reviewer

agrees,

and

would

suggest

that

the

vigorous

and

direct

attack

of

The

Unfinish~ed

Business

of

Civil

Service

Reform

calls

to

mind

the

picture

of

a

man

who

has

the

&dquo;bull

by

the

horns&dquo;

and

is

wrestling

mightily.

University

of

California,

Los

Angeles.

IVAN

HINDERAKER.

The

Use

of

the

Licensing

Power

by

the

City

of

Chicago.

Illinois

Studies

in

the

Social

Sciences,

Vol.

XXXIII,

Nos.

2-3.

By

MALCOLM

B.

PARSONS.

(Urbana:

The

University

of

Illinois

Press.

1952.

Pp.

x,

198.

$4.50

cloth;

$3.50

paper.)

Parsons’

study

is

a

thorough,

detailed,

and

stimulating

analysis

of

licensing

by

Chicago.

The

purpose

of

the

book,

as

stated

by

the

author,

&dquo;is

to

add

to

our

store

of

knowledge

about

the

operations

of

local

govern-

ment

in

the

United

States,

by

attempting

to

characterize

the

use

of

the

licensing

power

in

a

particular

institutional

setting:

the

government

of

Chicago....&dquo;

This

purpose

has

been

achieved.

The

setting

in

which

Parsons

works

owes

much

to

the

conceptions

developed

by

Ernst

Freund.

However,

Parsons

seems

to

strike

into

a

new

conceptual

territory,

especially

in

the

concluding

chapter.

He

recognizes,

as

do

most

students

of

political

science

and

public

administration,

that

specialized

groups

many

times

do

not

go

beyond

their

own

ends

and

that

they

may

not

serve

any

broad

responsibility

to

society.

The

public

interest,

he

concludes,

may

seem

to

be

an

abstraction

because

of

its

lack

of

an

effective

mode

of

political

articulation;

and

licensing,

as

his

study

indicates,

has

not

served

Chicago

well

in

many

instances.

In

future

studies,

it is

to

be

hoped

that

he

will

develop

more

fully

his

belief

as

to

what

should

be

now

that

he

has

completed

his

excellent

sample

in

depth

of

what

is.

University

of

New

Mexico.

FREDERICK

C.

IRION.