THE DUAL CITY AS POLITICAL CHOICE

This paper examines the proposition that the dual social character of urban America is mostly a product of US political choices during this century. In responding to the emerging imperatives of economic restruc turing and racial transformation, federal, state, and local officials pursued a Jeffersonian notion of urban politics. The author argues tha t this response has diminished the nation's political capability for a chieving community-building solutions to public problems in local poli tics, thereby creating more polarized metropolitan areas.