ABSTRACT
Mayor Seth Low's defeat in 1903, while disappointing to New York's better citizens, actually increased the opportunities for newer and younger men trained in the universities as public administrators, economists, and political scientists. In 1907 the independent Bureau of Municipal Research was incorporated. Bureau reformers envisioned a "new city government" fully responsive to community needs and equipped "to further the health, intelligence and economic capacity of its citizens". The Bureau of Municipal Research could only be as effective as the data it accumulated and New York's archaic government structure allowed. New Yorkers, as all urban citizens, are divided into three distinct governing groups: electors, representatives, and administrators. Electors exercise popular control through ballots, petitions, and charter grants; representative bodies direct the affairs of municipal government through statutes, ordinances, and budgets; and administrators supervise the details of public business through their power to appoint and remove employees.
