Book Reviews : Urban Life and Form. By WERNER Z. HIRSCH. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1963. Pp. 248. $5.00.)
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296401700122 |
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| Author | Christian L. Larsen |
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
143
The
interpretation
of
the
different
political
attitudes
and
political
behavior
pat-
terns
of
North
(rural)
and
South
(urban)
Florida
is
particularly
interesting.
This
rural-urban
cleavage,
coupled
with
the
lack
of
a
party
system
and
the
institutional
weaknesses
of
the
legislative
and
executive
branches,
produces
a
situation
that
pro-
vides
special
interests
with
easy
access
to
the
centers
of
political
power.
The
authors,
in
their
discussion
of
the
prospects
for
improvement
of
the
legislature,
indict
it
as
lacking
in
representativeness,
responsibility,
and
rationality.
It
is
the
view
of
Professors
Havard
and
Beth
that
the
basic
malfunction
in
Flor-
ida
politics
is
the
rural-urban
conflict,
which
is
partially
responsible
for,
and
the
key
to
the
improvement
of,
two
other
malfunctions:
the
lack
of
a
party
system
and
the
race
question.
They
feel
that
&dquo;the
continuing
urbanization
(or
suburbanization)
of
Florida’s
population
will
certainly
make
the
reconciliation
of
the
representative
ideal
with
the
unrepresentative
reality
more
and
more
difficult.&dquo;
In
diagnosing
the
ills
of
the
Florida
body
politic,
the
authors
come
to
the
con-
clusion
that
the
urbanization
of
North
Florida
may
eventually
&dquo;overcome
the
lag
in
the
distribution
of
political
power&dquo;
but
that
the
&dquo;present
imbalance
is
so
great
and
the
constitutional
rigidity
so
pronounced
that
even
a
projection
of
the
current
rate
of
change
would
be
slow
to
manifest
its
effects....&dquo;
They
take
note
of
the
action
of
the
Supreme
Court
in
Baker
v.
Carr
but
see
it
as
only
a
possibility
for
judicial
correc-
tion
which
will
require
implementation.
They
also
perceive
some
hope
in
the
facts
that
increasing
attention
is
being
given
to
the
problem
of
reapportionment,
that
ur-
ban
voters
are
becoming
impatient
with
the
political
imbalance,
and
that
some
rural
representatives
are
no
longer
able
to
&dquo;countenance
the
obvious
tensions
between
the
theory
and
practice
of
representative
government
in
contemporary
Florida.&dquo;
Professors
Havard
and
Beth have
produced
a
well-written
and
well-documented
study
that
is
a
useful
addition
to
the
literature
on
the
legislative
process
at
the
state
level.
CHARLES
G.
MAYO
San
Francisco
State
College
Urban
Life
and
Form.
By
WERNER
Z.
HIRSCH.
(New
York:
Holt,
Rinehart
and
Winston,
Inc.,
1963.
Pp. 248.
$5.00.)
This
is
a
collection
of
papers
presented
at
the
Faculty
Seminar
on
Foundations
of
Urban
Life
and
Form
(1961-62)
sponsored
by
the
Institute
for
Urban
and
Re-
gional
Studies,
Washington
University,
St.
Louis,
Missouri.
Professor
Hirsch,
the
Institute
director,
appears
in
the
dual
role
of
author
and
editor,
having
written
the
Introduction
and
one
of
the
papers
and
edited
the
others.
Lest
we
believe
that
matters
relating
to
cities
and
urban
areas
lie
only
within
the
province
of
political
science,
it
should
be
noted
that
only
one
of the
nine
contribu-
tors
is
a
political
scientist.
The
others
may
be
identified
as
architect,
attorney-city
planner,
historian,
philosopher,
economist,
sociologist,
sociologist-psychiatrist,
and
urban
planner.
All
nine
hold
university
academic
and/or
administrative
positions.
The
central
theme
of
the
seminar
was
that
too
many
of
our
answers
to
urban
and
suburban
problems
are
shallow,
pat,
and
based
upon
too
limited
sound
research,
and
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