Items related to The Social Divide: Political Parties and Policymaking...

The Social Divide: Political Parties and Policymaking in the 1990s: Political Parties and the Future of Activist Government - Hardcover

 
9780815792888: The Social Divide: Political Parties and Policymaking in the 1990s: Political Parties and the Future of Activist Government
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
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

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Synopsis:
An analysis of how politics affected social policymaking during President Clinton's first administration. Twelve contributions explore such topics as the politicization of public opinion, the deficit and the politics of domestic reform, health care policy, the corporate response to social policy, crime policy, ending welfare, race and the politics
About the Author:
Margaret Weir is Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., USA.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

(No Available Copies)

Search Books:



Create a Want

If you know the book but cannot find it on AbeBooks, we can automatically search for it on your behalf as new inventory is added. If it is added to AbeBooks by one of our member booksellers, we will notify you!

Create a Want

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780815792871: The Social Divide: Political Parties and the Future of Activist Government

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0815792875 ISBN 13:  9780815792871
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 1998
Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace