NYC-WTC_000152373

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Scholars^ and Money: Fiscal Policy in New York and Chicago,” agreed, arguing

Divided on that New York City has weathered extraordinary circumstances in the past without tampering with its elec­ toral laws or extending the terms of

Giuliani Bid its political leaders. In 1'932 during the Depression and again-in 1975, Ms. Fuchs said, the city ’faced debilitating fiscal crises, and By EMILY EAKIN in both cases, elected officials car­ Politicians have responded in different ried out their duties normally. The .ways to an adoring public. Julius Caesar 1975 case, she said, was particularly declined attempts by his constituents to instructive. Mayor Abraham Beame, 'have him wear a crown, explaining, “Non she said, “restructured the city’s jex sum sed Caesar” — “I am not a king.but debt and governance.” Moreover, ' Caesar.” (Though in the end, his closest she stressed that unlike Mr. Giuliani, ■'advisers got him out of office by stabbing who has been able to rely on support ‘him.) And George Washington refused to from the federal government to pay ■;give in to public desire to keep him perma­ for rescue and recovery operations nently in the presidency, stepping down at at the World Trade Center, Mr. the end of his second term. Beame was largely on his own. (Re­ But Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has member the front page of The Daily seen his approval ratings soar since the News summing up the White House’s '..Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, opted for a an- response; “Ford to City; Drop -jother kind of response this week when he Dead.” The government eventually proposed extending his term in office by at did offer a loan guarantee.) -least three months. -.L- While the three candidates to succeed him “People were satisfied with how 7as mayor scrambled to find a politically Mr. Beame handled the crisis, no ..palatable response to the announcement, question,” Ms. Fuchs said. But that •experts on 'Americturfaistory; -election law did not mean they wanted to keep -and New York City politics debated the him -on .as-mayot:__he_los t_ the 1977 -merits of such a move and searched for election to Edward I. Koch. “Today . historical precedents. An informal sounding we have the support of the nation and ■of scholarly opinion yesterday revealed an the state,” Ms. Fuchs said. “We have academic community divided over whether a much broader resource network to ■' the mayor’s proposal, which was approved get us through this than we did either ' by two of the three mayoral candidates, in 1975 or in 1932.” ••iafmounted to an unacceptable breach of . But that network of financial re­ "'democratic tradition or a welcome, even sources is precisely what makes '•necessary, response to a difficult time for ' Mayor Giuliani indispensable to the khe city. city right now, said Fred Siegel, a ' “Though historians are very reluctant to professor of urban history at Cooper -'say never, I can’t think of a single historical Union in Manhattan. “For our recov­ •precedent,” said Eric Foner, a professor of ery, we need federal money, and the " history at Columbia University. “In times of key to getting it and using it expedi­ -^crisis, we have always had transitions from tiously is Giuhani,” Mr. Siegel said. ■one elected leader to another one and from “We have many businesses on the -one party to another.” Mr. Foner cited sev- verge of failure, not just in lower .rjeral examples from American political his- Manhattan but across the city. It’s in ;lory, including the presidential elections of our interests as a city to get those ’1864, during the Civil War, in which Lincoln sluice gates open and get the money was re-elected; of 1952, during the Korean flowing, and Giuliani has those ,^War, in which Dwight D. Eisenhower was mechanisms at his disposal. There’s elected to succeed Harry S. Truman. no learning curve.” ' “I can’t think of any time at which an Even if a majority of New Yorkers ? outgoing official suggested he ought to stay supported such a move, extending ■'.bn because he’s indispensable,” Mr. Foner Mayor Giuliani’s term would require ' said. “Our political system has,, gone new legislation. Some scholars, in­ •/through many political shocJfsWd sui^ived cluding Laurence H. Tribe, an expert them.” Ester Fuchs, a professor of in constitutional law at Harvard Uni- political science and public policy at Barnard College and Columbia Uni­ versity and the author of “Mayors

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