The Social Divide Political Parties and the Future of Activist Government

by Weir, Margaret

• ISBN13: 9780815792871
• ISBN10: 0815792875
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-02-01
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Summary

The extraordinary swings in the scope and content of the policy agenda during the first Clinton administration revealed a fundamental partisan divide over the social role of the federal government. This book argues that the recent conflicts over social policy represent key elements in strategies that parties designed in an attempt to consolidate their hold over the federal government. Long frustrated by divided government, each party exceeded its electoral mandate in hopes of enacting major policy reforms aimed to shift politics in their direction for the foreseeable future.The book traces the overreaching and limited legislative success that characterized the first Clinton administration's approach to three distinctive features of politics and policymaking: the polarization of political elites; the predominance of advertising campaigns and intense interest group politics as political parties have ceased to mobilize ordinary people; and the unprecedented role that budgetary concerns now play in social policymaking. Although neither party managed to enact its major transforming agenda, Congress did pass new policies--most notably welfare reform--that together with a host of other changes in the states and the private sector altered the landscape for social policy. The poor have been the biggest losers as Democrats and Republicans have fought to win the middle class over to their vision of the future.The authors first analyze the institutions and tools of policymaking, including Congress, the political use of public opinion polling, and the politics of the deficit. They then consider policies designed to win over the middle class, including health care policy, employer-provided social benefits, wages and jobs, and crime policy. Last, they address policies targeted at the disadvantaged, including welfare, affirmative action, and urban policy.In addition to the editor, the contributors include John Ferejohn, Lawrence R. Jacobs, Robert Y. Shapiro, Paul Pierson, Mark A. Peterson, Cathie Jo Martin, Ann Lin, R. Kent Weaver, Linda Williams, and John Mollenkopf.Copublished with the Russell Sage Foundation

Table of Contents

Political Parties and Social Policymaking	p. 1
A Tale of Two Congresses: Social Policy in the Clinton Years	p. 49
The Politicization of Public Opinion: The Fight for the Pulpit	p. 83
The Deficit and the Politics of Domestic Reform	p. 126
The Politics of Health Care Policy: Overreaching in an Age of Polarization	p. 181
Inviting Business to the Party: The Corporate Response to Social Policy	p. 230
Wages and Jobs: What Is the Public Role?	p. 268
The Troubled Success of Crime Policy	p. 312
Ending Welfare as We Know It	p. 361
Race and the Politics of Social Policy	p. 417
Urban Policy at the Crossroads	p. 464
American Politics and the Future of Social Policy	p. 506
Contributors	p. 531
Index	p. 533
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