PRIVATE MONEY AND PUBLIC POWER: THE POLITICAL IMPACT OF THE NEW YORK CITY FINANCIAL CRISIS

The basic intention of the work is not to describe why the 1975 New York City Financial crisis occurred but to assess its political effects. A secondary intention is to provide an historical account of decision making within the institutions that took over New York's governance--what I have called the "Crisis Regime"--during the 1975-1978 financial emergency period. The data base includes statutes, primary documents, press accounts and some interviews and observation.;After describing changes in public law, detailing the powers given the new institutions created during the crisis--the MAC and the EFCB--and describing the politics of decision making in three case studies during the crisis--the financial plan, the emergence of an EFCB labor policy and the struggle for control over the finances of New York's major public benefit corporations--I attempt to assess the political impact against three dimensions: local policy process, intergovernmental relations and private economic power. Various models of urban policy making including intergovernmental relations, pluralist and elitist models, public choice and neo-marxist theory are applied in different sections.;A final, more speculative chapter concludes the text. It argues that the political system in New York City underwent a fundamental change as a result of the financial crisis moving it toward a more technocratic/planning style of governance. The implications for the community power debate--and thus democratic theory--sum up the entire work.