How Policies Make Citizens

by Campbell, Andrea Louise

• ISBN13: 9780691122502
• ISBN10: 0691122504
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-24
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Some groups participate in politics more than others. Why? And does it matter for policy outcomes? In this richly detailed and fluidly written book, Andrea Campbell argues that democratic participation and public policy powerfully reinforce each other. Through a case study of senior citizens in the United States and their political activity around Social Security, she shows how highly participatory groups get their policy preferences fulfilled, and how public policy itself helps create political inequality. Using a wealth of unique survey and historical data, Campbell shows how the development of Social Security helped transform seniors from the most beleaguered to the most politically active age group. Thus empowered, seniors actively defend their programs from proposed threats, shaping policy outcomes. The participatory effects are strongest for low-income seniors, who are most dependent on Social Security. The program thus reduces political inequality within the senior population--a laudable effect--while increasing inequality between seniors and younger citizens. A brief look across policies shows that program effects are not always positive. Welfare recipients are even less participatory than their modest socioeconomic backgrounds would imply, because of the demeaning and disenfranchising process of proving eligibility. Campbell concludes that program design profoundly shapes the nature of democratic citizenship. And proposed policies--such as Social Security privatization--must be evaluated for both their economic and political effects, because the very quality of democratic government is influenced by the kinds of policies it chooses.

Author Biography

Andrea Louise Campbell is Assistant Professor of Government at Harvard University. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy at Yale University from 2001 to 2003

Table of Contents

LIST OF FIGURES	ix
LIST OF TABLES	xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	xv
CHAPTER ONE Introduction: The Reciprocal Participation-Policy Relationship	1	(13)
CHAPTER TWO Overview: Rising Senior Participation and the Growth of the American Welfare State	14	(24)
CHAPTER THREE A Model of Senior Citizen Political Participation	38	(27)
CHAPTER FOUR Senior Citizen Participation and Policy over Time	65	(28)
CHAPTER FIVE Policy Threat and Seniors' Distinctive Political Voice	93	(22)
CHAPTER SIX Congressional Responsiveness	115	(10)
CHAPTER SEVEN The Reciprocal Participation-Policy Relationship across Programs	125	(13)
CHAPTER EIGHT Participation, Policymaking, and the Political Implications of Program Design	138	(9)
APPENDIX A Supplementary Tables	147	(14)
APPENDIX B Two-Stage Social Security Participation Model	161	(4)
APPENDIX C Senior/Nonsenior Mobilization Ratios by Party, 1956-96	165	(1)
APPENDIX D Multiple Interrupted Time-Series Analysis	166	(3)
NOTES	169	(36)
REFERENCES	205	(16)
INDEX	221