A decade ago, political scientists were deploring the “lost world of municipal government” and calling for systematic studies of municipal life which emphasized the political, rather than the administrative, side of urban political life. In recent years, this demand has been generously answered and urban politics is becoming one of the most richly plowed fields of political research. In terms originally introduced by David Easton, political scientists have long been concerned with inputs, but more recently they have focused their attention on other system variables, particularly the political culture and policy outputs of municipal governments.The present paper will treat two policy outputs, taxation and expenditure levels of cities, as dependent variables. We will relate these policy choices to socio-economic characteristics of cities and to structural characteristics of their governments. Our central research concern is to examine the impact of political structures, reformed and unreformed, on policy-making in American cities.

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This is a preliminary report of some experiments undertaken to find a method for detecting threatened or potential ankylosis of the stapes before there is any loss of hearing as shown by the usual functional tests. The approach was by way of sounds louder than those of minimum audibility. The idea is to diagnose clinical otosclerosis (or other dyscrasia of the bone about the windows of the labyrinth) so early that experimental observations and preventive treatment may be instituted at a time when they will be of most service. There is no evidence that anything can be done to reverse the otosclerotic process, but it does stop at various stages of development, and early detection would open up possibilities for treatment now unavailable. The background for my experiments was laid on the following observations and hypothesis. OBSERVATIONS Throughout the ages acuity of hearing has been measured at minimum audibilty (by air conduction and by bone conduction), but sounds of this intensity are rarely listened to except under special circumstances. They do not necessarily give a true picture of acuity of hearing for louder sounds. The ear does not usually listen to sounds of faint intensity. It ignores them. For ordinary conversation the normal ear expects and is accustomed to sounds from 40 to 60 decibels above normal minimum audibility.Many persons do not appear to hear loud sounds as well by air conduction or by bone conduction as would be expected from their threshold audiograms. This is one reason why some do not hear as well with hearing aids as is expected. It suggests that there may be lesions which interfere proportionately less with faint sounds than with louder sounds.Many other persons appear to hear much better than their threshold audiograms imply, and loud sounds disturb some markedly deafened persons as much as they do those with good hearing. This suggests that there may be lesions which interfere proportionately more with faint sounds than with loud sounds\p=m-\lesionswhich even in some deafened ears permit near normal sensitivity for loud sounds.

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