What American government does / Stan Luger, Brian Waddell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Luger, Stan, 1956- author.

Waddell, Brian, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Politics and government.

United States.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

385 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017.

Summary:

Government does much more than you may think. -- It has become all too easy to disparage the role of the US government today. Many Americans are influenced by a simplistic anti-government ideology that is itself driven by a desire to roll back the more democratically responsive aspects of public policy. But government has improved the lives of Americans in numerous ways, from providing income, food, education, housing, and healthcare support, to ensuring cleaner air, water, and food, to providing a vast infrastructure upon which economic growth depends. In What American Government Does, Stan Luger and Brian Waddell offer a practical understanding of the scope and function of American governance. They present a historical overview of the development of US governance that is rooted in the theoretical work of Charles Tilly, Karl Polanyi, and Michael Mann. Touching on everything from taxes, welfare, and national and domestic security to the government's regulatory, developmental, and global responsibilities, each chapter covers a main function of American government and explains how it emerged and then evolved over time. Luger and Waddell are careful to both identify the controversies related to what government does and those areas of government that should elicit concern and vigilance. Analyzing the functions of the US government in terms of both a tug-of-war and a collaboration between state and societal forces, they provide a reading of American political development that dispels the myth of a weak, minimal, non-interventionist state. What American Government Does represents a major contribution to the scholarly debate on the nature of the American state and the exercise of power in America.

Contents:

The significant state

The tax state

The welfare state

The national security state

The domestic security state

The regulatory state

The developmental state

The moral state.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781421422596

142142259X

OCLC:

961408417

Publisher Number:

99972271728