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Cover image of Building Coalitions, Making Policy
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Building Coalitions, Making Policy

The Politics of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Presidencies

edited by Martin A. Levin, Daniel DiSalvo, and Martin M. Shapiro

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Getting past "No" in an age of partisan noise.

In an age when partisan politics has reached a deafening—and arguably impotent—pitch, how does the real work of politics get done? This book opens the door on backroom politics and gives readers an insider's perspective on the efforts of policymakers from three presidential administrations to get past the naysayers and effect real and lasting policy changes.

The editors take a comparative approach, offering a thorough overview of policymaking during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, with further discussion of President Obama's...

Getting past "No" in an age of partisan noise.

In an age when partisan politics has reached a deafening—and arguably impotent—pitch, how does the real work of politics get done? This book opens the door on backroom politics and gives readers an insider's perspective on the efforts of policymakers from three presidential administrations to get past the naysayers and effect real and lasting policy changes.

The editors take a comparative approach, offering a thorough overview of policymaking during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, with further discussion of President Obama's successful and failed attempts to build coalitions and get past no. The contributors, a national network of prominent political scientists, reveal the sausage-making of politics and policy. Readers can almost see the political players in the proverbial smoke-filled room, shirtsleeves rolled up and BlackBerrys in hand, developing the strategies and hammering out the compromises designed to hold the party base while winning over independent voters. Combining an insider's perspective with actual case studies, the volume examines the policymaking behind such programs as

• No Child Left Behind
• tax cuts
• Social Security privatization
• Medicare prescription drug reform
• education and immigration reform
• environmental policy
• judicial politics
• national security

Covering all major areas of policymaking, Building Coalitions, Making Policy gives instructors in political science, public administration and policy, American government, and American presidential studies plenty of provocative examples for classroom debate.

Reviews

Reviews

A welcome addition to a public policy course or a course on presidential leadership, and practitioners can learn from it too.

An outstanding collection of essays from a respected group of scholars, this book offers valuable insights on contemporary American politics—in particular, how partisan polarization has affected the policymaking process.

About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
416
ISBN
9781421405094
Illustration Description
4 graphs, 3 figures
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction. Getting Past No: Building Coalitions and Making Policy from Clinton to Bush to Obama
Chapter 1. The Electoral Connection and the Dissonant Game of Coalition Building in an

Acknowledgments
Introduction. Getting Past No: Building Coalitions and Making Policy from Clinton to Bush to Obama
Chapter 1. The Electoral Connection and the Dissonant Game of Coalition Building in an Era of Partisan Policymaking
Chapter 2. Why LBJ Is Smiling: The Bush Administration, "Compassionate Conservatism," and No Child Left Behind
Chapter 3. Splitting the Coalition: The Political Perils and Opportunities of Immigration Reform
Chapter 4. Embracing the Third Rail? Social Security Politics from Clinton to Obama
Chapter 5. The Bush Administration and the Politics of Medicare Reform
Chapter 6. A Solution for All Seasons: The Politics of Tax Reduction in the Bush Administration
Chapter 7. The Bush Administration and the Uses of Judicial Politics
Chapter 8. A Feint to the Center, a Move Backward: Bush's Clear Skies Initiative and the Politics of Policymaking
Chapter 9. National Security, the Electoral Connection, and Policy Choice
Chapter 10. The Dynamics of Presidential Policy Choice and Promotion
Chapter 11. Touching the Bases: Parties and Policymaking in the Twenty- First Century
Chapter 12. Bush's "Our Crowd"
Chapter 13. Politics, Elections, and Policymaking
List of Contributors
Index

Author Bios
Martin A. Levin
Featured Contributor

Martin A. Levin

Martin A. Levin is a professor of politics at Brandeis University. His latest book is Creating Competitive Markets: The Politics of Regulatory Reform.