Community Mobilization and Policy Implementation: The Civil Rights Movement and the War on Poverty, 1965-71

A landmark series of studies found that the preferences of average citizens have no significant impact on the passage of public policy. Using the War on Poverty in the 1960s as a case study, sociologist Tarun Banerjee will investigate what factors best explain the implementation of federal policy. He will analyze the distribution of Community Action Program grants, county-level administrative data, and data from the Dynamics of Contentious Action dataset for his study.