This text examines specific cases where states and cities are ahead of the federal government in providing solutions to social problems.

States and cities are sometimes ahead of the federal government in providing solutions to social problems. The federal bureaucracy often prefers no change to change. Congress is sometimes paralyzed by party and ideological differences resulting in stagnation. In this vacuum, some states provide innovative programs to solve social problems that may be applicable at the federal level.

This book examines specific examples of state and local initiatives to solve these representative social problems: undemocratic practices, poverty, inadequate wages for the working poor, unequal educational opportunity by class and race, the inadequate and inefficient health care system, the environmental crisis, and the decaying or inadequate infrastructure.