| Federal Policymaking and the Poor: National Goals, Local Choices, and Distributional Outcomes Subjects: Federal aid to community development -- United States; Federal aid to community development -- Illinois -- Chicago Metropolitan Area; Block grants -- United States; Block grants -- Illinois -- Chicago Metropolitan Area; Intergovernmental fiscal relations; Do federal, state, and local governments differ in their responsiveness to the needs of the poorest citizens? Are policy outcomes different when federal officials have greater influence regarding the use of federal program funds? To answer such questions, Michael Rich examines to what extent benefits of federal programs actually reach needy people, focusing on the relationship between federal decision-making systems and the distributional impacts of public policies. His extensive analysis of the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), the principal federal program for aiding cities, reveals that the crucial divisions in domestic policy are not among the levels of government, but between constellations of participants in the different governmental arenas. |