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Washington Is Broken: Politics and the New Populism

Robert Wuthnow

in Small-Town America: Finding Community, Shaping the Future

This chapter examines how a new populism took root in small towns. In particular, it considers the ways that residents of small towns show antipathy toward big government, such as concerns about the ... More

This chapter examines how a new populism took root in small towns. In particular, it considers the ways that residents of small towns show antipathy toward big government, such as concerns about the scale of big bureaucracy, its inability to adapt to the norms and practices of small towns in which people know one another, and government's unresponsiveness to the needs of small communities in comparison with its attentiveness to problems in cities. The chapter first provides an overview of small-town politics before explaining how antipathy toward government is further reinforced by negative opinions about people on welfare. It also discusses the reasons for the popularity of Republicans in small towns and concludes by assessing the possibilities present in small towns for grassroots activism.Less

Redistribution and Public Provision

Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel

in The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice

Taxation has two primary functions. First, it determines how much of a society’s resources will come under the control of government, for expenditure in accordance with some collective decision ... More

Taxation has two primary functions. First, it determines how much of a society’s resources will come under the control of government, for expenditure in accordance with some collective decision procedure, and how much will be left in the discretionary control of private individuals, as their personal property; call this public-private division. Second, it plays a central role in determining how the social product is shared out among different individuals, both in the form of private property and in the form of publicly provided benefits; call this distribution. Though these functions are typically run together in political discussion--by the use of slogans such as “big government”–they are conceptually and normatively distinct. It is difficult, however, to address the two policy issues separately, since the two functions are mutually interdependent in practice.Less

Contemporary Conservatism and Government Regulation

Christopher DeMuth

in Crisis of Conservatism?: The Republican Party, the Conservative Movement, and American Politics After Bush

This chapter explores the tension between conservatives’ opposition to the growth of government regulation in principle and their willingness to accommodate it in practice. It focuses especially on ... More

This chapter explores the tension between conservatives’ opposition to the growth of government regulation in principle and their willingness to accommodate it in practice. It focuses especially on this clash in the context of the period of Republican ascendency (1998–2008). The chapter explains why conservatives are hostile to regulation and the various efforts to limit growth as well as reasons for the failure to do so. It offers suggestions for developing conservative ideas and policies on regulation.Less

Big Government and Prosperity in the United States

Samuel Cohn

in All Societies Die: How to Keep Hope Alive

This chapter focuses on big government and prosperity in the United States. A lot of Americans are fairly skeptical about the federal government. Some feel the public sector is full of bureaucrats ... More

This chapter focuses on big government and prosperity in the United States. A lot of Americans are fairly skeptical about the federal government. Some feel the public sector is full of bureaucrats who waste money, interfere with business decisions, and push personal agendas. Others are obsessed with party politics and despise everything from “the other party.” Both groups miss a fundamental point: big government is essential to the survival of a modern capitalist system. The government provides institutional support for the economy that capitalists cannot provide for themselves. Business will not provide defense, education, public health, physical infrastructure, and scientific research because these services are completely unprofitable.Less

Contradictions in the Policy Environment

Yue Chim Richard Wong

in Diversity and Occasional Anarchy: On Deep Economic and Social Contradictions in Hong Kong

All activities require decisions. Resources are finite but there is an array of demands that must be satisfied. Every decision incurs opportunity costs, and they comprise the options associated with ... More

All activities require decisions. Resources are finite but there is an array of demands that must be satisfied. Every decision incurs opportunity costs, and they comprise the options associated with social, health, education and environmental issues. They are entirely economic in nature as they are subject to the law of scarcity in economics. Thereby, myriads of non-business activities can be provided and allocated through the marketplace, yet many of them are arranged beyond the “small government, big market” framework in Hong Kong.Less

East Asian Secrets of Economic Growth

Samuel Cohn

in All Societies Die: How to Keep Hope Alive

This chapter evaluates how poor countries achieve economic growth in the face of all the obstacles posed by the rich countries. The most successful ones have used a highly advanced form of big ... More

This chapter evaluates how poor countries achieve economic growth in the face of all the obstacles posed by the rich countries. The most successful ones have used a highly advanced form of big government — a strategy known to economists as the developmentalist state. This strategy was designed by Japan in the late nineteenth century, perfected by South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s, and brought to a high level of polish by the Chinese today. The key is having a very strong set of government economic planners who tell private companies how they should invest. These countries are not anticapitalist. Companies are privately owned; profits accrue to the owners. But anyone who wants to stay in the good graces of the government follows the official government plan. What Japan, Korea, and China actually did is they restricted firm ownership to locals, keeping multinational corporations out; strictly limited imports for consumption; and massively invested in education. They also developed a long-term plan for the nation to go into the right industries at the right time; induced private firms to cooperate with the national plan by having the government guarantee sales, profits, and cheap credit; and prevented Korean firms from going soft by setting strict performance standards in the middle term.Less

Flying Solo: The Aviator and Entrepreneurial Vision

Paul A. Cantor

in The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture: Liberty vs. Authority in American Film and TV

Chapter Five discusses Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, a film based on the life of Howard Hughes, as a rare example in popular culture of a positive portrait of an entrepreneur. Most Hollywood films ... More

Chapter Five discusses Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, a film based on the life of Howard Hughes, as a rare example in popular culture of a positive portrait of an entrepreneur. Most Hollywood films present people engaged in business as villains, and offer various kinds of public officials as the only way to keep business under control. By contrast, The Aviator portrays Hughes as a heroic and visionary figure, obsessed with creating a better future in both film and aviation. Scorsese presents big business negatively only when it colludes with big government. The most villainous figure in The Aviator is a U.S. Senator who conspires with Hughes's competitors to try to destroy him. As a maverick in the film business himself, Scorsese sides with Hughes as an independent in both the aviation and the entertainment industries.Less

The Origins of National Technological Advantage

Samuel Cohn

in All Societies Die: How to Keep Hope Alive

This chapter addresses how big government is also responsible for countries achieving strategic technological advantages. Strategic technological advantage is the key to gaining from unequal terms of ... More

This chapter addresses how big government is also responsible for countries achieving strategic technological advantages. Strategic technological advantage is the key to gaining from unequal terms of trade. If your country has invented something and controls proprietary technology, your nation has a monopoly and can charge monopoly prices. Other countries have to compete with other vendors to sell their goods and sell at low competitive prices. But how do countries get technological monopolies? America's scientific and engineering dominance comes from the superiority of its higher education. The United States was the only country to create large public universities with cheap tuition in every state or province in the nation. The chapter then looks at the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890; the Hatch Act of 1914; and the GI Bill. It also considers the founding of the National Science Foundation. The plan was that not only would the United States have stronger armed forces due to military technology, but it would also have a better economy due to civilian technology and would be better able to solve social problems with the use of social technology.Less

Pragmatic Policy in the Marketplace of Ideas

in The Private Abuse of the Public Interest: Market Myths and Policy Muddles

This chapter outlines a realistic synthesis of government and markets. The investigation of promarket reforms has yielded three overarching conclusions. The first broad conclusion is that a return to ... More

This chapter outlines a realistic synthesis of government and markets. The investigation of promarket reforms has yielded three overarching conclusions. The first broad conclusion is that a return to the realism of Adam Smith and of other economic and social pragmatists is long overdue. The second general conclusion is that pressure from voters and stakeholders is an unavoidable ingredient in sustainable and effective policy, not an extraneous distraction that should be pushed beyond the pale of sound policy logic. Third, the uncritical promotion of markets as vehicles of effectiveness and efficiency served the conservative agenda well, but also carried a considerable cost: a growing disconnect between public rhetoric and political practice that blocked a balanced assessment of market forces in public policy. Promarket reforms have provoked a pragmatic reaction that expanded government roles in generating public goods, sustaining market allocations of resources, and offsetting damages and risks to individuals. A lingering question is whether this pragmatism stands at odds with basic American values of individualism and antistatism.Less

Introduction

Anne Daguerre

in Obama's Welfare Legacy: An Assessment of US Anti-Poverty Policies

The introductory chapter sets out the broad political context that helps explain the Obama partial success in terms of antipoverty policies. It points out to major contradictions in the American ... More

The introductory chapter sets out the broad political context that helps explain the Obama partial success in terms of antipoverty policies. It points out to major contradictions in the American political tradition: a deep-seated suspicion of government intervention combined with a strong attachment for entitlement programs, the paradox of a presidential institution portrayed as one of the most powerful in the world but that faces considerable constraints in terms of enacting domestic reforms. The introduction enumerates the structural constraints – constitutional and institutional - that limit the president’s capacities for action. In essence, the legitimacy of the federal government intervention has always been a contested terrain. This has resulted in variable-speed federalism, with a strong pattern of state diversity, especially in relation to welfare.Less

Four PSIE Challenges

Alon Peled

in Traversing Digital Babel: Information, E-Government, and Exchange

Chapter seven addresses four political and ethical dilemmas associated with the implementation of a Public Sector Information Exchange (PSIE). (1) The democracy challenge presents a trade-off between ... More

Chapter seven addresses four political and ethical dilemmas associated with the implementation of a Public Sector Information Exchange (PSIE). (1) The democracy challenge presents a trade-off between public data as a public good that cannot be traded, and efficient sharing of government information that furthers democratic ideals of transparency, accountability, and service delivery (via e-Government). This dilemma is examined through a case study of Iceland’s genome commoditization debate. (2) The privacy challenge concerns the trade-off between citizens’ right to privacy and efficient governance. (3) The data ownership and intellectual property challenge addresses the inherent tension in agencies’ ownership claim over public data: Can agencies own data that is essentially a public good? This challenge is examined through a case study of the Dutch RINIS public sector information commons project. (4) The freedom of information challenge concerns the dilemma between trading public data for profit, and making data freely accessible to citizens.Less

From Franklin to Facebook: The Civic Mandate for Communications

Richard R. John

in To Promote the General Welfare: The Case for Big Government

This chapter discusses the role of big government in communications. It describes three governmental institutions that have been especially consequential: the postal system, the regulatory agency, ... More

This chapter discusses the role of big government in communications. It describes three governmental institutions that have been especially consequential: the postal system, the regulatory agency, and the Internet. The postal system and the Internet are federal institutions; regulatory agencies, in contrast, have derived their authority not only from the federal government but also from the states. Each of these institutions had its greatest influence in a different century: the postal system in the 1800s; the regulatory agency in the 1900s; the Internet today.Less

Southern White Privilege

Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields

in The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics

In order to solidify support among its southern white base, the GOP offered powerful characterizations of the haves and have-nots, of the taxpayer and the tax recipient, of the makers and the takers, ... More

In order to solidify support among its southern white base, the GOP offered powerful characterizations of the haves and have-nots, of the taxpayer and the tax recipient, of the makers and the takers, all of which promoted the belief that some Americans deserved privileges but others did not. Thus, the techniques of the Long Southern Strategy are more complex than simply elevating whiteness to maintain the racial hierarchy. Additionally, the Long Southern Strategy turned the political arena into a zero-sum economic game, in which only one group could prosper. GOP leaders framed federal entitlements as big government waste and minority advancement as tantamount to white persecution. In turn, opposition to both safeguards white privilege by championing fiscal conservatism and pretending whiteness is a meritocracy. While a popular and effective dog whistle, these messages make southern whites vulnerable to identity politics and subject to vote against their economic self-interest.Less