Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T02:57:03.462Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Structural versus Functional Determinants of New York’s Fiscal Policies towards Metropolitan Transportation, 1904–1990

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

James K. Cohen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A central concern of both sociological theory and historical inquiry involves the relationships between structure and function. The two foremost grand theories of the past 100 years, structural functionalism and Marxism, posit opposing answers to the question of whether structure determines function, or vice versa. Contemporary studies in fields as diverse as urban politics and organizational sociology continue to draw inspiration from this conundrum, since the “answer” has such profound implications for understanding the driving forces within society and history.

The present article follows in this tradition. An examination of the history of capital finance within transportation is used to elucidate the direction of causality in relationships between structural arrangements, such as the amount and kinds of debt used for capital investment, and functional outcomes, such as growth in new kinds of transportation services.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , Summer 1991 , pp. 177 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1991 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, C. (1988) The Politics of Capital Investment. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Bear, Steams and Company (1983) Metropolitan Transportation Authority. New York: Bear, Steams and Company.Google Scholar
Board of Transportation of New York City (1945) Financial report for the five years ending 30 June 1945. New York.Google Scholar
Bottles, S. L. (1987) Los Angeles and the Automobile. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Caro, R. A. (1974) The Power Broker. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Castells, M. (1977) The Urban Question: A Marxist Approach. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Clark, T., and Ferguson, L. (1983) City Money. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1988) “Capital investment and the decline of mass transit in New York City, 1945-1981.” Urban Affairs Quarterly 23: 369-88.Google Scholar
Derrick, P. (1984) “Catalyst for development: Rapid transit in New York.” New York Affairs 9(2): 29–59.Google Scholar
Fainstein, N., and Fainstein, S., eds. (1982) Urban Policy under Capitalism. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Fitch, R. (1977) “Planning New York,” in Alcaly, R. and Mermelstein, D. (eds.) The Fiscal Crisis of American Cities. New York: Vintage: 215-17.Google Scholar
Friedland, R. (1981) “Central city fiscal strains: The public costs of private growth.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 5(3): 357-75.Google Scholar
Goodfarb, A. (n.d.) “A history of transportation in the New York region.” Master’s thesis, Columbia University.Google Scholar
Harvey, D. (1978) “The urban process under capitalism: A framework for analysis.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 3(3): 101-31.Google Scholar
Kennedy, M. (1984) “The fiscal crisis of the city,” in Smith, M. E. (ed.) Cities in Crisis. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage: 91–110.Google Scholar
Lardner, J. (1984) “A reporter at large.” New Yorker, 25 June, pp. 41–72.Google Scholar
McDonald, T., and Ward, S. (1984) The Politics of Urban Fiscal Policy. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
McGinley, J. J. (1949) Labor Relations in the New York Rapid Transit System. New York: Kings Crown.Google Scholar
McKinney’s Consolidated Laws (1952-81) New York: McKinney’s.Google Scholar
Mallach, S. (1979) “The origins of the decline of urban mass transportation in the United States, 1890-1930.” Urbanism Past and Present 8: 1–17.Google Scholar
Merton, R. (1949) Social Theory and Social Structure. Glencoe, IL: Free.Google Scholar
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (1975) Report to the Governor. New York.Google Scholar
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (1986) Annual Report. New York.Google Scholar
Miller, W. S. (1953) “Metropolitanism, transit, and politics.” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University.Google Scholar
Monkkonen, E. H. (1988) America Becomes Urban. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
New York City Chamber of Commerce (1966) The Path to Progress in Commuter Transportation. New York: New York City Chamber of Commerce.Google Scholar
New York City Comptroller (1940) Message concerning the issuance of city bonds in connection with transit unification. New York.Google Scholar
New York City Planning Commission (1940-78) Proposed Capital Budget. New York: City of New York.Google Scholar
New York Times (1932).Google Scholar
O’Connor, J. (1973) The Fiscal Crisis of the State. New York: St. Martin’s.Google Scholar
Perrow, C. (1986) Complex Organizations. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Peterson, P. (1981) City Limits. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sandier, R. (1986) Mass Transit. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Sawers, L. (1985) “The political economy of urban transportation,” in Tabb, W. and Sawers, L. (eds.) Marxism and the Metropolis. New York: Oxford University Press:Google Scholar
Sayre, W., and Kaufman, H. (1960) Governing New York City. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Seeley, E. (1984) “Mass transit.” New York Affairs 9(2): 15–27.Google Scholar
Smith, R. G. (1969) Public Authorities in Urban areas. Washington, DC: National Association of Counties Research Foundation.Google Scholar
Snell, B. C. (1974) America’s Ground Transport. Report prepared for the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. 93d Cong., 2d Sess.Google Scholar
Stinchcombe, A. (1978) Theoretical Methods in Social History. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. (1976) The Making of the European Nation State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Trimble, R. (1976) “Rebuilding Lower Manhattan, 1955—1974.” Ph.D. diss., City University of New York.Google Scholar
Whitt, J. A. (1982) Urban Elites and Mass Transportation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Yago, G. (1984) The Decline of Transit. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar