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94 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1979-1980)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry94 and id is 1 raw text is: 








Patterns of Ethnic Succession: Blacks


             and Hispanics in New York City











                                       DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN

              Ethnic succession is one of the pronounced rhythms in the life of
New   York  City. Political scientists will recognize it as a homely variant of
Pareto's circulation of elites, and it seems fair to take it as a measure of the vigor
of our society and our capacity for self-renewal.
   In the late 1950s Nathan Glazer and I, collaborating on a study of the ethnic
groups  of New  York City, saw  ethnic succession as a central dynamic of the
city's organizational life. At that time, for example, the Irish had dominated the
political life of the city for generations; yet just as clearly they were departing
that scene, and this was  the opening observation in our  chapter devoted to
them. Indeed, in the aftermath of the municipal elections of 1977 there was (for
what  a diligent researcher would probably find to be the first time in at least a
century) not a single Irish name on the Board of Estimate, the central governing
body  of the city made up of the mayor, the comptroller, the president of the city
council, and the five borough presidents.
  Ethnic succession was not, however,  the central theme of our study, which
had as its more elemental purpose the mere assertion that ethnicity was still a
force in the life of New York City (and by extension, the nation) and was not go-
ing away. The first proposition received grudging assent at the time; at election
season the editorials deploring the persistence of the balanced ticket were as
predictable as the accompanying  admonition  to all citizens to make certain to
vote. (So much  for the influence of editorialists. The balanced ticket cheerfully
persists while voting participation steadily declinesl) But the thought that

DANIEL  PATRICK  MOYNIHAN,   a sometime professor of political science, is United States
Senator from New York. His books include Beyond the Melting Pot, Toward a National
Urban Policy, Ethnicity, and, most recently, A Dangerous Place. This article is adapted from The
1978 Public Affairs Lecture sponsored by the Graduate Program in Public Affairs and Adminis-
tration at Columbia University.


Political Science Quarterly Volumne94 Numberi Spring1979

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