Oklahoma Politics and Policies: Governing the Sooner State

Oklahoma is a plains state exemplifying the Middle American virtues of family, lodge, and church; a southern state in the path of the power shift from the indus-trial East to the energy-rich sunbelt; a western state of modern cowboys and rodeos. Small wonder its political culture is so varied. The authors of Oklahoma Politics and Policies contend that Oklahoma is a paradox-a state struggling for a clear sense of identity where the old and new vie for the allegiance of its citizens. David R. Morgan, Robert E. England, and George O. Humphreys examine the history of Oklahoma and the place of Native Americans in this former Indian Territory; the state's links to the federal government; its executive, legislative, and judicial systems; political parties and interest groups; local government; and the current policy issues that confront its citizens. They assess the attempts of Oklahomans to revive their economy. The 1990s will be bright, the authors sug-gest, if Oklahomans can put aside internal conflicts and the politics of negativism in approaching economic and social problems more pragmatically. David R. Morgan is a professor of political science at the University of Oklahoma and the author of Managing Urban America (1979) and, with others, The Oklahoma Voter (1977). Robert E. England is a professor of political science at Oklahoma State University; he is a coauthor of Race, Class, and Education: The Politics of Second Generation Discrimination (1989). George O. Humphreys, research director of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, is the author of Taylorism in France, 1904-1920: The Impact of Scientific Management on Factory Relations and Society (1986).