Reforms at risk : what happens after major policy changes are enacted / Eric M. Patashnik.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Patashnik, Eric M.

Series:

Princeton studies in American politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political planning--United States.

Political planning.

United States.

Physical Description:

xii, 236 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2008]

Summary:

Reforms at Risk is the first book to closely examine what happens to sweeping and seemingly successful policy reforms after they are passed. Most books focus on the politics of reform adoption, yet as Eric Patashnik shows here, the political struggle does not end when major reforms become enacted. Why do certain highly praised policy reforms endure while others are quietly reversed or eroded away?

Patashnik peers into some of the most critical arenas of domestic-policy reform-including taxes, agricultural subsidies, airline deregulation, emissions trading, welfare state reform, and reform of government procurement-to identify the factors that enable reform measures to survive. He argues that the reforms that stick destroy an existing policy subsystem and reconfigure the political dynamic. Patashnik demonstrates that sustainable reforms create positive policy feed-backs, transform institutions, and often unleash the "creative destructiveness" of market forces.

Reforms at Risk debunks the argument that reforms inevitably fail because Congress is prey to special interests, and the book provides a more realistic portrait of the possibilities and limits of positive change in American government. It is essential reading for scholars and practitioners of U.S. politics and public policy, offering practical lessons for anyone who wants to ensure that hardfought reform victories survive.

Contents:

Introduction : general-interest policymaking and the politics of reform sustainability

Policy reform as a political project

Expert ideas meet politics : reforming the tax code

Freedom the agricultural welfare state : the mixed case of the Freedom to Farm Act

Reforming the American welfare state : ERISA and the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act

Uncle Sam goes shopping : reinventing government procurement

Unshackling an unstable industry : airline deregulation

Making pollution control pay : emissions trading for acid rain

Conclusions : the patterns and paradoxes of policy reform.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [181]-228) and index.

ISBN:

9780691119984

0691119988

9780691138978

0691138974

OCLC:

192045580