The Policy State
An American Predicament
Karen Orren, Stephen Skowronek
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ISBN 9780674237872
Publication date: 02/25/2019
The steady accretion of public policies over the decades has fundamentally changed how America is governed. The formulation and delivery of policy have emerged as the government’s entire raison d’être, redefining rights and reconfiguring institutional structures. The Policy State looks closely at this massive unnoticed fact of modern politics and addresses the controversies swirling around it. Government has become more responsive and inclusive, but the shift has also polarized politics and sowed a deep distrust of institutions. These developments demand a thorough reconsideration of historical governance.
“A sterling example of political science at its best: analytically rigorous, historically informed, and targeted at questions of undeniable contemporary significance… Orren and Skowronek uncover a transformation that revolutionized American politics and now threatens to tear it apart.”
—Timothy Shenk, New Republic
“Wherever you start out in our politics, this book will turn your sense of things sideways and make you rethink deeply held assumptions. It’s a model of what political science could be, but so rarely is.”
—Yuval Levin, National Review
“A gripping narrative…opening up new avenues for reflection along methodological, conceptual, and normative lines.”
—Bernardo Zacka, Contemporary Political Theory
Praise
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A sterling example of political science at its best: analytically rigorous, historically informed, and targeted at questions of undeniable contemporary significance… Orren and Skowronek uncover a transformation that revolutionized American politics and now threatens to tear it apart.
-
Wherever you start out in our politics, this book will turn your sense of things sideways and make you rethink deeply held assumptions. It’s a model of what political science could be, but so rarely is.
-
A gripping narrative…opening up new avenues for reflection along methodological, conceptual, and normative lines.
-
The Policy State shows us how the policy gears whir over time and how the policy regime has profoundly shifted the Constitutional frame of American governance. These changes—the irresistible spread of policy efforts—render policy-making more difficult, more transient, and more frustrating on every political side. A masterful, powerful, original, and important book!
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This book’s distinct contribution is to provide a unifying account of diverse legal developments in the areas of both rights and constitutional structure that together have led to the emergence of what the authors call the modern ‘policy state.’
Authors
- Karen Orren is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.
- Stephen Skowronek is the Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Science at Yale University.
Book Details
- 272 pages
- 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
- Harvard University Press
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