Hostname: page-component-76dd75c94c-68sx7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T07:19:05.869Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Influence of the Tennessee Valley Authority on Government in the South

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Joseph M. Ray
Joseph M. Ray
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Recent observers have offered evidence that social and economic change is coming to the South more rapidly than to other sections of the country. There can be little doubt in the minds of those who know the region that TVA has played a prominent part in effecting the transformation. The effect of the operations and activities of TVA has been quite as marked upon the governments as upon the society and economy of the region.

We should not lose sight of the fact that TVA has had substantial effect upon government throughout the country, and indeed throughout the world. This effect is not restricted to its power, engineering, and atomic energy achievements. TVA's resource-use activities, while designed primarily for the Valley region, are in many respects transferable to other areas. For present purposes, however, we are concerned only with the effect of TVA on Southern governments.

Much has been written about TVA, and especially about its “grass roots” approach to the problems entrusted to its stewardship. The writings of Clapp, Durisch, Lilienthal, and Satterfield have copiously documented this aspect of the Authority's influence upon the nation's governmental establishments. There yet remains, however, the task of a forthright assessment of the effect of TVA upon governmental institutions and processes. What changes have come to Valley governments which might not have come had there been no TVA? What are those governments now, in matters of structure, program, techniques, competence, vision, and relationships, that they might not have become if the great Valley experiment had never been undertaken?

Type
American Government and Politics
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 43 , Issue 5 , October 1949 , pp. 922 - 932
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1949

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Odum, Howard W., “Social Change in the South,” Journal of Politics, Vol. 10 (May, 1948), pp. 242–258CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 244.

2 Clapp, Gordon R., “TVA: A Democratic Method for the Development of a Region's Resources,” Vanderbilt Law Review, Vol. 10 (Feb., 1948), pp. 183–193Google Scholar, at p. 191.

3 Finer, Herman, The T.V.A.; Lessons for International Application (Montreal, 1944), p. 115Google Scholar.

4 Lilienthal, David E., TVA—Democracy on the March (New York, 1944), p. 126Google Scholar. See also Gordon R. Clapp, op. cit., p. 191, and Satterfield, M. H., “TVA-State-Local Relationships,” in this Review, Vol. 40 (Oct., 1946), pp. 935–949Google Scholar, at p. 948.

5 Louis, St.Post-Dispatch, Dec. 31, 1944, 3Google Scholar, 1.

6 Quoted in Durisch, Lawrence L., “Regional Research—The Experience of the Tennessee Valley Authority,” Public Affairs, Vol. 4 (Summer, 1945), pp. 234–238Google Scholar, at p. 235. See also Lilienthal, David E., The TVA: A Step Toward Decentralization (Washington, 1941), p. 6Google Scholar; same author, TVA—Democracy on the March, p. 125 ff; M. H. Satterfield, op. cit., p. 936; same author, Tennessee Valley Resources; Their Development and Use (Knoxville, 1947), p. 9Google Scholar; Kull, Donald C., Budget Administration in the Tennessee Valley Authority (Knoxville, 1948), p. 5Google Scholar; Gordon R. Clapp, op. cit., p. 185; same author, “The Administrative Resources of a Region; The Example of the Tennessee Valley,” New Horizons in Public Administration (University, Alabama, 1945), pp. 79–95Google Scholar; same author, “Public Administration in an Advancing South,” Public Administration Review, Vol. 8 (Summer, 1948), pp. 169–175CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 171; Herman Finer, op. cit., pp. 114–120; Johnson, Hayden B., “Federal-State-Local Coöperation: The Tennessee Valley,” State Government, Vol. 10 (Oct. 1948), pp. 214–218Google Scholar.

7 Bosworth, Karl A., Tennessee Valley County (University, Alabama, 1941), p. 114Google Scholar. See also Durisch, Lawrence L. and Macon, Hershall L., “Payments in Lieu of Taxes by the Tennessee Valley Authority,” Journal of Politics, Vol. 3 (Aug., 1941), pp. 318–334CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Edelmann, Alexander T., “Public Ownership and Tax Replacements by the T.V.A.,” in this Review, Vol. 35 (Aug., 1941), pp. 727–737Google Scholar; Valley, Tennessee Authority, “Report on Section 13 of the TVA Act” (Mimeo., Knoxville, 1944)Google Scholar.

8 Durisch, op. cit.

9 Especially his “TVA-State-Local Relationships,” op. cit., and Tennessee Valley Resources; Their Development and Use.

10 Highsaw, Robert Baker, Mississippi's Wealth (University, Mississippi, 1947)Google Scholar; Larsen, Christian L., South Carolina's Natural Resources (Columbia, 1947)Google Scholar; Ray, Joseph M. and Worley, Lillian, Alabama's Heritage (University, Alabama, 1947)Google Scholar; Wager, Paul W. and Hayman, Donald B., Resource Management in North Carolina (Chapel Hill, 1947)Google Scholar; Greene, Lee S., Brown, Virginia H., and Iverson, Evan, Rescued Earth (Knoxville, 1948)Google Scholar.

11 See Finer, op. cit., p. 96; Lilienthal, , TVA—Democracy on the March, p. 64Google Scholar.

12 Tennessee Valley Resources; Their Development and Use, p. 30; for earlier figures on the same point, see same author, “Intergovernmental Coöperation in the Tennessee Valley,” Journal of Politics, Vol. 9 (Feb., 1947), pp. 31–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 53, and Lilienthal, , Democracy on the March, p. 135Google Scholar.

13 See works cited above, note 10.

14 See Ray and Worley, op. cit., pp. 36–37, for a discussion of the Alabama State Department of Docks and Terminals.

15 Wager and Hayman, op. cit., p. 161; Satterfield, , Tennessee Valley Resources; Their Development and Use, p. 33Google Scholar.

16 Satterfield, “TVA-State-Local Relations,” op. cit., at p. 948.

17 Ray and Worley, op. cit., p. 66; Satterfield, , Tennessee Valley Resources; Their Development and Use, pp. 38–39Google Scholar.

18 Wager and Hayman, op. cit., p. 44.

19 Durisch, op. cit.; Lilienthal, , TVA—Democracy on the March, p. 130Google Scholar; Satterfield, “TVA-State-Local Relationships,” op. cit., p. 946.

20 Satterfield, , Tennessee Valley Resources; Their Development and Use, p. 124Google Scholar.

21 Gordon R. Clapp, “The Administrative Resources of a Region,” op. cit., p. 93; cf., same author, “TVA: A Democratic Method for the Development of a Region's Resources,” op. cit., p. 190.

22 Greene, Lee S., “Regional Research and Training in Public Administration,” Public Administration Review, Vol. 7 (Autumn, 1947), pp. 245–253CrossRefGoogle Scholar; White, Howard, “The Southern Regional Training Program in Public Administration,” Journal of Politics, Vol. 8 (Feb., 1946), pp. 74–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Satterfield, , Tennessee Valley Resources; Their Development and Use, p. 133Google Scholar.

24 Ibid., p. 106.

25 Clapp, “Public Administration in an Advancing South,” op. cit.

26 Issued by the Tennessee Valley Authority, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1940.

27 Dobbins, W. O. and Leonard, R. F., “Community Planning in North Alabama,” Public Administration Review, Vol. 4 (Summer, 1944), pp. 220–225CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 See Finer, op. cit., p. 96.

29 Satterfield, , Tennessee Valley Resources; Their Development and Use, p. 118Google Scholar.

30 Lilienthal, , TVA—Democracy on the March, pp. 117–124Google Scholar.

31 Bureau of Public Administration, University of Tennessee, Guide to Technical Services Available to State and Local Agencies in Tennessee (Knoxville, 1948)Google Scholar; Larsen, Christian L. and Jenkins, Paul J., Technical Services for South Carolina Governments (Columbia, South Carolina, 1948)Google Scholar; Highsaw, Robert Baker and Johnson, Edward McKenna Jr., Aids for Governing (University, Mississippi, 1948)Google Scholar.

32 Larsen, op. cit., pp. 13–14, 82–83.

33 Satterfield, M. H., “Coöperation Pays Dividends,” National Municipal Review, Vol. 31 (Sept., 1942), pp. 431–535CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Clapp, , “TVA: A Democratic Method for the Development of a Region's Resources,” p. 189Google Scholar.

35 Clapp, “The Administrative Resources of a Region,” op. cit., p. 93.

36 Pincus, William, “Shall We Have More TVA's?,” Public Administration Review, Vol. 5 (Spring, 1945), pp. 148–152CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Lilienthal, , TVA—Democracy on the March, p. 136Google Scholar.

38 See Nixon, H. C., “Politics of the Hills,” Journal of Politics, Vol. 8 (May, 1946), pp. 123–133CrossRefGoogle Scholar.