Briefer Notices
| Published date | 01 December 1956 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295600900427 |
| Date | 01 December 1956 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
1012
scribed
which
brought
together
the
Army
Corps
of
Engineers
with
its
advocates
(Pick
Plan)
and
the
Bureau
of
Reclamation
with
its
boosters
(Sloan
Plan)
into
the
celebrated
&dquo;shotgun
marriage&dquo;
(Pick-Sloan
Plan)
in
the
face
of
the
proposal
for
a
Missouri
Valley
Authority
(MVA).
Chap-
ter
9
narrates
the
abortive
efforts
of
1945
to
secure
approval
of
a
valley
authority
to
manage,
if
not
to
replace,
the
Pick-Sloan
Plan.
Chapter
10
offers
a
brief
summary
of
the
events
and
decisions
following
the
Pick-Sloan
Plan
to
the
Missouri
Basin
floods
of
1951.
Dr.
Ridgeway’s
volume
is
a
valuable
study
in
group
politics.
She
describes
and
analyzes
the
relationships
between
interest
groups,
lobby
&dquo;front&dquo;
organizations,
administrative
agencies,
the
Congress,
and
the
Presi-
dency
in
the
determination
of
such
water
resource
policies
as
those
for
reclamation,
flood
control,
hydroelectric
power
generation
and
distribution,
navigation,
and
related
purposes. She
shows
dependence
upon
the
&dquo;private
and
public
government&dquo;
concept
developed
by
the
late
Charles
E.
Mer-
riam,
but
for
which
she
gives
credit
to
Marshall
and
Gladys
Dimock.
A
related
concept
is
her
transference
of
the
&dquo;interlocking
directorate&dquo;
from
the
world
of
&dquo;private
government&dquo;
to
that
of
&dquo;public
government.&dquo;
This
reviewer
would
point
out
two
shortcomings
in
the
Ridgeway
vol-
ume
as
a
basic
source
on
the
politics
of
Missouri
Basin
development.
In
her
analysis
of
the
political
activity
which
led
to
congressional
approval
of
the
Pick-Sloan
Plan
the
author
perhaps
overemphasizes
the
process
as
one
of
group
politics
to
the
exclusion
of
the
individual
citizen
and
public
opinion.
Secondly,
her
conscious
decision
virtually
to
ignore
problems
of
federalism
and
state
government
activity
in
water
development
weakens
the
worth
of
the
volume
as
a
well-balanced
study
of
public
policy
formation.
Despite
these
omissions
the
book
stands
as
an
important
contribution
to
the
study
of
the
legislative
process
in
the
national
government.
Arizona
State
College.
Ross
R.
RICE.
BRIEFER
NOTICES
American
Government
PAUL
N.
YLVISAKER.
Intergovernmental
Relations
at
the
Grass
Roots.
Inter-
governmental
Relations
in
the
United
States
as
Observed
in
the
State
of
Minnesota.
(Minneapolis:
University
of
Minnesota
Press,
1956.
Pp.
xiii,
186.
$3.00,
paper.)
This
research
monograph
is
a
study
of
intergovernmental
relations
affect-
ing
Blue
Earth
County,
Minnesota.
Perhaps
it
is
best
described
by
the
com-
ment
of
the
author:
&dquo;There
is
no
such
thing
as
intergovernmental
relations.
There
are
only
relations
between
people
who
govern.&dquo;
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