Culture Wars and Local Politics. Edited by Elaine B. Sharp. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999. 250p. $35.00 cloth, $16.95 paper.

Abstract

Although political conflict is certainly no stranger to U.S. cities, the contributors to Culture Wars suggest that a new kind of conflict, heavily embued with moral overtones, is surfacing with more frequency on the urban landscape. Battles over abortion, gay and lesbian rights, hate crimes, and the like, are taking their place along side the more traditional disputes associated with service delivery, economic develop- ment, and redistribution of resources. The morality-based nature of these new culture wars has, according to the contributors, created a new type of politics that is evidenced in the way issues are presented, debated, and resolved. These differences are a function of the passion associated with moral claims, the involvement of religious organizations, and the use of nonconventional protest tactics that can be fairly aggressive. These differences between how culture wars play out and politics as usual may render existing theories of local politics insufficient.