Abstract

Big Apple bites liberalism

The likely re-election in November 1997 of New York City's Republican Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, carries a special sting. Elsewhere in the country, seismic shifts like sub urbanization and declining unionization have badly weakened the Democratic Party. But in New York, Democrats continue to outnumber Republicans by five to one. The answer, in large part, is that New York liberals threw away their power by failing to advance new ideas. As much as anything else, Giuliani's dominance reflects the upper hand that conservatives enjoy in the war of ideas over city policy. The Democratic Party never exactly abandoned its quest for social justice. But as that quest became institutionalized in huge government agencies, liberalism in New York began to look more like a jobs program and less like a political movement.