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Created page with "{{Infobox person | name=Kenneth Ray Mladenka (Former Political Science Professor<br> at Texas A&M University) | birth_date=September 4, 1943 | birth_place-Lavaca County, Tex..."
{{Infobox person
| name=Kenneth Ray Mladenka
(Former Political Science Professor<br>
at Texas A&M University)
| birth_date=September 4, 1943
| birth_place-Lavaca County, [[Texas]] <br>
'''Residences''':<br>
Bryan, Brazos County, Texas<br>
Crested Butte, Gunnison County, [[Colorado]]<br>
Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas
| death_date=
| death_place=
| spouse=Linda Marie Mladenka (divorced)<br>
'''Children''':<br>
Brooke M. Mladenka<br>
Lauren Elizabeth Mladenka<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Joe, Jr., and Della Valiguva Mladenka<br>
'''Alma mater''':<br>
Sam Houston State University<br>
[[Rice University]]
| religion=[[Christian]]
| party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
|branch=[[United States Army]]<br>
4th Infantry Division and the 716th Military Police Battalion
|battles/wars=[[Vietnam War]]
|serviceyears-1967-1968
|awards=[[Bronze Star]]
}}
'''Kenneth Ray Mladenka''' (born September 4, 1943) <ref name=mylife>Kenneth Ray Mladenka, 79 - Georgetown, TX .</ref> is a retired [[United States|American]] [[political scientist]] who spent the bulk of his academic career at [[Texas A&M University]] in [[College Station, Texas|College Station]], [[Texas]], and is known for his research on the urban political process, [[bureaucracy]], local government, and the distribution of public services, rather than the more traditional study of parties and elections.
==Background==
Of [[Croatia]]n descent, Mladenka (pronounced MAH DEEN KA, was born to Joe Mladenka, Jr., and the former Della Valiguva (a [[Latvia]]n name) in Lavaca County, Texas<ref>{{cite web|url=http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=1&new=1&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=angs-g&gsfn=Kenneth+Ray&gsln=Mladenka&mswpn__ftp=College+Station%2c+Texas&msbdy=1943&uidh=upc&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=3839453&db=TXbirthindex&indiv=1&ml_rpos=4|title=Kenneth Ray Mladenka|publisher=search.ancestry.com|accessdate=January 13, 2015}}</ref> and reared in Sugar Land in Fort Bend County in suburban [[Houston, Texas|Houston]]. In 1958- to 1959, he was the Texas state oratory champion n high school.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uil100.org/archives/academics/am-event-gender.php?event=Declamation|title=UIL Declamation|publisher=uil100.org|accessdate=October 20, 2010}}</ref> Mladenka is a veteran of the [[Vietnam War]], having served as a [[Captain]] in the [[United States Army]] in the 4th Infantry Division and the 716th Military Police Battalion from 1967-1968. He was stationed in the former [[Saigon]] during the [[Tet Offensive]] and was awarded the [[Bronze Star]] Medal.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cushing.library.tamu.edu/temp/collections/oral-history-collection/agricultural-history/military-history|title=Military History|publisher=cushing.library.tamu.edu|accessdate=October 21, 2010}}</ref> He received his master's degree from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas,<ref>Statement of Mladenka colleague Kim Quaile Hill.</ref> and his [[Ph.D.]] in 1975 from [[Rice University]] in Houston. His [[dissertation]], available full length on-line, is entitled ''The Distribution of Urban Public Services.''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/8299/browse?value=MLADENKA%2C+KENNETH+R.&type=author|title=Kenneth R. Mladenka, Theses and Dissertations: Kenneth R. Mladenka|publisher=scholarship.rice.edu|accessdate=October 17, 2010}}</ref> After completing his graduate studies, Mladenka was appointed in 1975 as assistant professor of government and foreign affairs at the [[University of Virginia]] in [[Charlottesville]], [[Virginia]]. He also spent a year at [[Northwestern University]] in Evanston, [[Illinois]]. In 1979, he joined the TAMU faculty.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=418959|title=Faculty appointments|publisher= | volume=11|pages=296–300}}</ref>
==Scholarly work==
Mladenka is the author of the textbook, ''The Unfinished Republic: American Government in the 21st Century,'' a study of the dynamic nature of politics and how the system reacts to change.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.betterworldbooks.com/the-unfinished-republic-id-0131244965.aspx|title=The Unfinished Republic: American Government in the 21st Century|location= New York|publisher= Prentice-Hall| ISBN =0-13-124496-5|accessdate=October 17, 2010}}</ref> With Kim Quaile Hill (born 1946), then of the University of Houston and later Texas A&M University, Mladenka is co-author of another textbook, ''Texas Government: Politics and Economics.'' He has also penned ''Democratic Governance in American States and Cities'' (ISBN 0-534-13603-6) and ''The Dual Republic: A Multiracial/multicultural Approach to American Government'' (ISBN 0-13-859679-4).
In 1977, Mladenka and Kim Hill completed the study "The Distribution of Benefits in an Urban Environment: Parks and Libraries in Houston." The researchers found that the location of parks and libraries are based on "bureaucratic rules and appear to be little affected by explicit racial and socioeconomic criteria."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uar.sagepub.com/content/13/1/73.abstract|title=The Distribution of Benefits in an Urban Environment: Parks and Libraries in Houston|publisher=uar.sagepub.com|accessdate=October 17, 2010}}</ref> Mladenka and Hill in 1978 did a similar study on police services in urban areas.<ref>Mladenka and Hill, "The Distribution of Urban Police Services," ''Journal of Politics'' 40 (February 1978): pp. 112-33.</ref>
Mladenka's research revealed that scholarly journals during the 1980s published fewer articles on urban politics than in the other subfields of the discipline. He found that urban scholars are not as prominent on the editorial boards of the major political science journals, and that traditional scholars, called empiricists, regard most urban research, dependent on case studies, paradigms, quantitative analysis, and theoretical perspectives, as confusing and repetitive jargon in sharp contrast to the traditional emphasis of the discipline. These urban scholars stress "local settings where global, national, and voting behavior outcomes happen at street level and where day-to-day lives are affected."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.siue.edu/~atheisi/scholarship.htm|title=Dr. Theising's Reflection on Scholarship|publisher=siue.edu|accessdate=October 17, 2010}}</ref><ref>Kenneth R. Mladenka and Bryan D. Jones, "Urban Politics and Political Science," "Political Science: Looking to the Future," Vol. 4. in ''American Institutions,'' William Crotty, ed., (Evanston, [[Illinois]]: [[Northwestern University]] Press, 1994), pp. 287-289.</ref>
Mladenka contributed to "The Political Machine, the Urban Bureaucracy, and the Distribution of Public Services" to ''Chicago Politics Papers,'' a joint effort of the [[University of Illinois]] and Northwestern University, to study the period between the two Chicago mayors named [[Richard J. Daley|Daley]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/9206/IlGov50_Sanders.pdf?sequence=2|title=Chicago Politics Papers|publisher=ideals.illinois.edu|accessdate=October 17, 2010}}</ref>
He is a past president of the urban politics section of the American Political Science Association and editor of ''Urban Politics Newsletter.'' He published research articles in ''Social Science Quarterly'' and ''The American Political Science Review.'' In a study of the distribution of parks and recreational opportunities in Chicago, Mladenka found that by the late 1980s class had replaced race as the determinant factor in the distribution of urban services.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.nku.cn/libtrs/uploadFile/02HC00SN.pdf|author=Kenneth R. Mladenka|title=The Distribution of an Urban Public Service: The Changing Role of Race and Politicspublisher=''Urban Affairs Quarterly'' Vol 84 (June 1989), pp. 556-583|accessdate=October 21, 2010}}</ref>
==Later life==
After leaving TAMU, Mladenka and his wife, Linda Marie Mladenka (born 1947), moved to the resort community of Crested Butte in Gunnison County in west central [[Colorado]]. Mrs. Mladenka operates a business there called At Home in Crested Butte.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crestedbuttenews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1251&Itemid=40|title=Mark Reaman, "Big Air on Elk will return to Crested Butte this March," February 18, 2009|publisher=''The Crested Butte News''|accessdate=November 17, 2010}}</ref> The Mladenkas have two daughters, Brooke M. Mladenka (born 1976) and Lauren Elizabeth Mladenka (born 1982). The couple divorced, and Mladenka moved first to Hollywood, [[Florida]], and later in Georgetown in Williamson County near the capital city of [[Austin]].<ref>People Search and Background Check, on-line</ref> In the fall semester of 2010, Mladenka was teaching the Texas state government course, required in most college major fields in Texas, at the Rio Grande campus of Austin Community College]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www3.austincc.edu/schedule/s210f/gove210Ffac.htm|title=Fall2010 Course Schedule|publisher=austincc.edu|accessdate=October 20, 2010}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mladenka, Kenneth R.}}
[[Category:Texas People]]
[[Category:Colorado]]
[[Category:Professors]]
[[Category:American Authors]]
[[Category:Vietnam War]]
[[Category:Bronze Star Medal]]
[[Category:American people of Croatian descent]]
| name=Kenneth Ray Mladenka
(Former Political Science Professor<br>
at Texas A&M University)
| birth_date=September 4, 1943
| birth_place-Lavaca County, [[Texas]] <br>
'''Residences''':<br>
Bryan, Brazos County, Texas<br>
Crested Butte, Gunnison County, [[Colorado]]<br>
Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas
| death_date=
| death_place=
| spouse=Linda Marie Mladenka (divorced)<br>
'''Children''':<br>
Brooke M. Mladenka<br>
Lauren Elizabeth Mladenka<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Joe, Jr., and Della Valiguva Mladenka<br>
'''Alma mater''':<br>
Sam Houston State University<br>
[[Rice University]]
| religion=[[Christian]]
| party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
|branch=[[United States Army]]<br>
4th Infantry Division and the 716th Military Police Battalion
|battles/wars=[[Vietnam War]]
|serviceyears-1967-1968
|awards=[[Bronze Star]]
}}
'''Kenneth Ray Mladenka''' (born September 4, 1943) <ref name=mylife>Kenneth Ray Mladenka, 79 - Georgetown, TX .</ref> is a retired [[United States|American]] [[political scientist]] who spent the bulk of his academic career at [[Texas A&M University]] in [[College Station, Texas|College Station]], [[Texas]], and is known for his research on the urban political process, [[bureaucracy]], local government, and the distribution of public services, rather than the more traditional study of parties and elections.
==Background==
Of [[Croatia]]n descent, Mladenka (pronounced MAH DEEN KA, was born to Joe Mladenka, Jr., and the former Della Valiguva (a [[Latvia]]n name) in Lavaca County, Texas<ref>{{cite web|url=http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=1&new=1&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=angs-g&gsfn=Kenneth+Ray&gsln=Mladenka&mswpn__ftp=College+Station%2c+Texas&msbdy=1943&uidh=upc&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=3839453&db=TXbirthindex&indiv=1&ml_rpos=4|title=Kenneth Ray Mladenka|publisher=search.ancestry.com|accessdate=January 13, 2015}}</ref> and reared in Sugar Land in Fort Bend County in suburban [[Houston, Texas|Houston]]. In 1958- to 1959, he was the Texas state oratory champion n high school.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uil100.org/archives/academics/am-event-gender.php?event=Declamation|title=UIL Declamation|publisher=uil100.org|accessdate=October 20, 2010}}</ref> Mladenka is a veteran of the [[Vietnam War]], having served as a [[Captain]] in the [[United States Army]] in the 4th Infantry Division and the 716th Military Police Battalion from 1967-1968. He was stationed in the former [[Saigon]] during the [[Tet Offensive]] and was awarded the [[Bronze Star]] Medal.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cushing.library.tamu.edu/temp/collections/oral-history-collection/agricultural-history/military-history|title=Military History|publisher=cushing.library.tamu.edu|accessdate=October 21, 2010}}</ref> He received his master's degree from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas,<ref>Statement of Mladenka colleague Kim Quaile Hill.</ref> and his [[Ph.D.]] in 1975 from [[Rice University]] in Houston. His [[dissertation]], available full length on-line, is entitled ''The Distribution of Urban Public Services.''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/8299/browse?value=MLADENKA%2C+KENNETH+R.&type=author|title=Kenneth R. Mladenka, Theses and Dissertations: Kenneth R. Mladenka|publisher=scholarship.rice.edu|accessdate=October 17, 2010}}</ref> After completing his graduate studies, Mladenka was appointed in 1975 as assistant professor of government and foreign affairs at the [[University of Virginia]] in [[Charlottesville]], [[Virginia]]. He also spent a year at [[Northwestern University]] in Evanston, [[Illinois]]. In 1979, he joined the TAMU faculty.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=418959|title=Faculty appointments|publisher= | volume=11|pages=296–300}}</ref>
==Scholarly work==
Mladenka is the author of the textbook, ''The Unfinished Republic: American Government in the 21st Century,'' a study of the dynamic nature of politics and how the system reacts to change.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.betterworldbooks.com/the-unfinished-republic-id-0131244965.aspx|title=The Unfinished Republic: American Government in the 21st Century|location= New York|publisher= Prentice-Hall| ISBN =0-13-124496-5|accessdate=October 17, 2010}}</ref> With Kim Quaile Hill (born 1946), then of the University of Houston and later Texas A&M University, Mladenka is co-author of another textbook, ''Texas Government: Politics and Economics.'' He has also penned ''Democratic Governance in American States and Cities'' (ISBN 0-534-13603-6) and ''The Dual Republic: A Multiracial/multicultural Approach to American Government'' (ISBN 0-13-859679-4).
In 1977, Mladenka and Kim Hill completed the study "The Distribution of Benefits in an Urban Environment: Parks and Libraries in Houston." The researchers found that the location of parks and libraries are based on "bureaucratic rules and appear to be little affected by explicit racial and socioeconomic criteria."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uar.sagepub.com/content/13/1/73.abstract|title=The Distribution of Benefits in an Urban Environment: Parks and Libraries in Houston|publisher=uar.sagepub.com|accessdate=October 17, 2010}}</ref> Mladenka and Hill in 1978 did a similar study on police services in urban areas.<ref>Mladenka and Hill, "The Distribution of Urban Police Services," ''Journal of Politics'' 40 (February 1978): pp. 112-33.</ref>
Mladenka's research revealed that scholarly journals during the 1980s published fewer articles on urban politics than in the other subfields of the discipline. He found that urban scholars are not as prominent on the editorial boards of the major political science journals, and that traditional scholars, called empiricists, regard most urban research, dependent on case studies, paradigms, quantitative analysis, and theoretical perspectives, as confusing and repetitive jargon in sharp contrast to the traditional emphasis of the discipline. These urban scholars stress "local settings where global, national, and voting behavior outcomes happen at street level and where day-to-day lives are affected."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.siue.edu/~atheisi/scholarship.htm|title=Dr. Theising's Reflection on Scholarship|publisher=siue.edu|accessdate=October 17, 2010}}</ref><ref>Kenneth R. Mladenka and Bryan D. Jones, "Urban Politics and Political Science," "Political Science: Looking to the Future," Vol. 4. in ''American Institutions,'' William Crotty, ed., (Evanston, [[Illinois]]: [[Northwestern University]] Press, 1994), pp. 287-289.</ref>
Mladenka contributed to "The Political Machine, the Urban Bureaucracy, and the Distribution of Public Services" to ''Chicago Politics Papers,'' a joint effort of the [[University of Illinois]] and Northwestern University, to study the period between the two Chicago mayors named [[Richard J. Daley|Daley]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/9206/IlGov50_Sanders.pdf?sequence=2|title=Chicago Politics Papers|publisher=ideals.illinois.edu|accessdate=October 17, 2010}}</ref>
He is a past president of the urban politics section of the American Political Science Association and editor of ''Urban Politics Newsletter.'' He published research articles in ''Social Science Quarterly'' and ''The American Political Science Review.'' In a study of the distribution of parks and recreational opportunities in Chicago, Mladenka found that by the late 1980s class had replaced race as the determinant factor in the distribution of urban services.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.nku.cn/libtrs/uploadFile/02HC00SN.pdf|author=Kenneth R. Mladenka|title=The Distribution of an Urban Public Service: The Changing Role of Race and Politicspublisher=''Urban Affairs Quarterly'' Vol 84 (June 1989), pp. 556-583|accessdate=October 21, 2010}}</ref>
==Later life==
After leaving TAMU, Mladenka and his wife, Linda Marie Mladenka (born 1947), moved to the resort community of Crested Butte in Gunnison County in west central [[Colorado]]. Mrs. Mladenka operates a business there called At Home in Crested Butte.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crestedbuttenews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1251&Itemid=40|title=Mark Reaman, "Big Air on Elk will return to Crested Butte this March," February 18, 2009|publisher=''The Crested Butte News''|accessdate=November 17, 2010}}</ref> The Mladenkas have two daughters, Brooke M. Mladenka (born 1976) and Lauren Elizabeth Mladenka (born 1982). The couple divorced, and Mladenka moved first to Hollywood, [[Florida]], and later in Georgetown in Williamson County near the capital city of [[Austin]].<ref>People Search and Background Check, on-line</ref> In the fall semester of 2010, Mladenka was teaching the Texas state government course, required in most college major fields in Texas, at the Rio Grande campus of Austin Community College]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www3.austincc.edu/schedule/s210f/gove210Ffac.htm|title=Fall2010 Course Schedule|publisher=austincc.edu|accessdate=October 20, 2010}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mladenka, Kenneth R.}}
[[Category:Texas People]]
[[Category:Colorado]]
[[Category:Professors]]
[[Category:American Authors]]
[[Category:Vietnam War]]
[[Category:Bronze Star Medal]]
[[Category:American people of Croatian descent]]