Community and economic development

The days of made-in-Washington solutions, dictated by a distant government, are gone. Discretion constantly vies with flexibility for the dominant factor in public policy. The level of government, which is to be preferred as the leader in policy moves with bewildering frequency among the federal, state, and local levels. Such rhetoric always exaggerates, but it does reflect shifting views on the relative importance of differing features of policy and alternative administrative responsibilities. The Clinton policy of community empowerment bears many features of previous approaches but is essentially another attempt to redefine the roles of the different governmental, private, and voluntary bodies that are involved in community and economic development. The program, together with urban renewal and other community development programs administered by Housing and Urban Development, was folded into the Community Development Block Grant at the end of 1974. The major legacy of the Carter administration was its reorientation of policy toward the stimulation of private investment.