Operation Breakthrough, Clear Lake City, Texas : A case study in federalism

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1972

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Abstract

Operation Breakthrough is a demonstration program, proposed by George Romney, Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1969. The program was designed to increase the supply of housing through the development and promotion of industrialized building systems and through simultaneous development of the markets necessary to absorb the increased volume of housing production. In short, the program was designed to help narrow the gap between the demand for and the production of housing units. Breakthrough offers an interesting study of the problems of a program designed and initiated on the national level to be implemented by a politically independent agency on the local level. It also embodies the attempts by the Nixon Administration to make programs respond to diverse local needs. This thesis is a case study of the failure of Operation Breakthrough in Clear Lake City, Texas. Its purpose is to explore the intergovernmental relationships and requirements of centralized federalism through the detailed study of a program failure in the system.

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Operation Breakthrough, Clear Lake City, Texas

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