The Politics of Major Policy Reform in Postwar America The Politics of Major Policy Reform in Postwar America examines the politics of recent landmark policy in areas such as homeland security, civil rights, health care, immigration, and trade, and it does so within a broad theoretical and historical context. By considering the politics of major programmatic reforms in the United States since the Second World War specifically, courses of action aimed at dealing with perceived public problems agroupof distinguished scholars sheds light on not only significant efforts to ameliorate widely recognized ills in domestic and foreign affairs but also on systemic developments in American politics and government. In sum, this volume provides a comprehensive understanding of how major policy breakthroughs are achieved, stifled, or compromised in a political system conventionally understood as resistant to major change. Jeffery A. Jenkins is a Professor in the Department of Politics and Faculty Associate in the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. He has published more than thirty articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and Studies in American Political Development. He is also the author (with Charles Stewart III) of Fighting for the Speakership: The House and the Rise of Party Government (2013) and the editor (with Eric M. Patashnik) of Living Legislation: Durability, Change, and the Politics of American Lawmaking (2012). Sidney M. Milkis is the White Burkett Miller Professor in the Department of Politics and Faculty Associate in the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. He has written extensively on political history and American politics, with special attention to the presidency, political parties, and social movements. His books include The President and the Parties: The Transformation of the American Party System Since the New Deal (1993); Political Parties and Constitutional Government: Remaking American Democracy (1999); Presidential Greatness (2000), coauthored with Marc Landy; The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776 2011, sixth edition (2011), coauthored with Michael Nelson; and Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy (2009). He is the coeditor (with Jerome Mileur) of three volumes on twentieth-century political reform: Progressivism and the New Democracy (1999), The New Deal and the Triumph of Liberalism (2002), and The Great Society and the High Tide of Liberalism (2005). His articles have been published in Perspectives on Politics, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Political Science Quarterly,theJournal of Policy History, Studies in American Political Development, and numerous edited volumes.
The Politics of Major Policy Reform in Postwar America Edited by JEFFERY A. JENKINS University of Virginia SIDNEY M. MILKIS University of Virginia
32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Information on this title: /9781107668485 Cambridge University Press 2014 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2014 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The politics of major policy reform in postwar America / edited by Jeffery A. Jenkins, University of Virginia; Sidney M. Milkis, University of Virginia. pages cm ISBN 978-1-107-03498-3 (hardback) 1. Political planning United States. 2. Policy sciences United States. 3. United States Politics and government 1945 1989. 4. United States Politics and government 1989 I. Jenkins, Jeffery A., editor of compilation. II. Milkis, Sidney M., editor of compilation. JK468.P64P66 2014 320.60973 dc23 2014005137 ISBN 978-1-107-03498-3 Hardback ISBN 978-1-107-66848-5 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents Contributors Acknowledgements page vii ix 1 Introduction: The Rise of a Policy State? 1 Jeffery A. Jenkins and Sidney M. Milkis 2 The Long 1950s as a Policy Era 27 David R. Mayhew 3 Regulation, Litigation, and Reform 48 Sean Farhang 4 Courts and Agencies in the American Civil Rights State 77 R. Shep Melnick 5 The Politics of Labor Policy Reform 103 Dorian T. Warren 6 Teachers Unions and American Education Reform: The Power of Vested Interests 129 Terry M. Moe 7 Progressive Federalism and the Contested Implementation of Obama s Health Reform 157 Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol 8 Federalism and the Politics of Immigration Reform 179 Carol M. Swain and Virginia M. Yetter 9 Trade Politics and Reform 203 Judith Goldstein 10 The Politics of Intelligence Reform 227 Richard H. Immerman v
vi Contents 11 Follow the Leader: Major Changes to Homeland Security and Terrorism Policy 253 Jennifer L. Merolla and Paul Pulido 12 Conclusion: Madison Upside Down: The Policy Roots of Our Polarized Politics 282 Paul Pierson Index 303
Contributors Sean Farhang, University of California, Berkeley Judith Goldstein, Stanford University Richard H. Immerman, Temple University Lawrence R. Jacobs, University of Minnesota Jeffery A. Jenkins, University of Virginia David R. Mayhew, Yale University R. Shep Melnick, Boston College Jennifer L. Merolla, Claremont Graduate University Sidney M. Milkis, University of Virginia Terry M. Moe, Stanford University Paul Pierson, University of California, Berkeley Paul Pulido, Claremont Graduate University Theda Skocpol, Harvard University Carol M. Swain, Vanderbilt University Dorian T. Warren, Columbia University Virginia M. Yetter, Bass Berry and Simms vii
Acknowledgements This volume grew out the William and Carol Stevenson Conference, which was held at the University of Virginia s Miller Center on November 11 and 12, 2011. The William and Carol Stevenson Conference is a biennial event that explores domestic and international issues of national importance. We are deeply grateful to the Stevenson family for their generous and passionate commitment to scholarship that joins rigorous analysis and public affairs. We also would like to thank Governor Gerald Baliles, Director of the Miller Center, for his support of the conference and enthusiastic engagement with its participants during two days of lively and wide-ranging discussion of public policy. We convened a distinguished group of scholars from political science and history in the hope that they might help us better understand the philosophical, historical, and institutional factors that have contributed to the success or failure of major policy reform in United States since the Second World War. The authors probing attention to policies spanning health care and homeland security met, indeed exceeded our expectations. Thanks to their efforts this volume offers new and interesting insights into how contests over public policy are at the heart of contemporary developments in American politics and government. ix