In the late nineteenth century, public officials throughout the United
States began to experiment with new methods of managing their local
economies and meeting the infrastructure needs of a newly urban,
industrial nation. Stymied by legal and financial barriers, they created
a new class of quasi-public agencies called public authorities. Today
these entities operate at all levels of government, and range from tiny
operations like the Springfield Parking Authority in Massachusetts,
which runs thirteen parking lots and garages, to mammoth enterprises
like the Tennessee Valley Authority, with nearly twelve billion dollars
in revenues each year. In The Rise of the Public Authority, Gail
Radford recounts the history of these inscrutable agencies, examining
how and why they were established, the varied forms they have taken, and
how these pervasive but elusive mechanisms have molded our economy and
politics over the past hundred years.