Customer Reviews

The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point

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The Clinton Health Care plan was a bold, dramatic attempt to transform the American health care system to take into account the fact that while America may provide the best health care in the world, far too many of its citizens are unable to afford it. Clinton's attempt, probably the most dramatic attempt at a government program since the Great Society, failed miserably and helped to elect a Republican Congress.

The battle the voters didn't see was the important one- the battle which nearly sank the Clinton Presidency and destroyed its ambitious health care proposal. The powers arrayed against the Clinton plan were formidable and well-financed, aided by the Administration's mind-numbing blunders.

"The System" has the entire story- the high hopes, the stunning reversals, the industry's toxic reaction to reform. The Clintonites quickly found that the old adage is true. No good deed goes unpunished.

"The System" is a very good book at who really calls the shots in American government and how little power people really have against the special interests. More valuable than ten years of civics lessons.

Broder and Johnson give an excellent look into the politics involved in everyday governing. From public speeches to secret meetings, the reader gets a new perspective on Washington and those who work there. The whole process of deal-making, lobbyists, and few compromises leaves the reader frustrated and enlightened about The System.

Reviewing this history of the health reform effort, the central failure of the first Clinton Administration, is an excellent way to anticipate the shape of things to come in Clinton II. The authors, masterful insiders, use their unprecedented access to the highest levels of power to demonstrate how universal coverage, a goal supported by virtually all the key players, drowned in a sea of amateurish, hubris-ridden ineptitude on the part of the boomer generations' "best and brightest". Will history repeat itself in the form of another domestic Vietnam? Or have all the president's persons learned from their mistakes the lessons as set forth by the authors in their incisive conclusion, in which they conclude that the sickest entity of all may well be 'The System' itself

An enlightening and dispiriting account of the rise and fall of President Clinton's health care reform plan. Broder and Johnson interviewed all the principals, from President Clinton and Hillary Clinton down to uninsured individuals dealing with serious health problems. Diagnosis: Change the U.S. health care system to provide all Americans with access to basic health care. Prescription: Massive federal program to expand the health insurance market and control costs. Outcome: An arrogant and inexperienced White House staff unwilling to compromise, faced with well-organized and vehement opposition from Republican lawmakers and a variety of special interest groups, led to stalemate

If you really want to get into the heads of the players behind the Clinton Health Care Reform plan then you must read Johnson and Broder's "The System." It reads more like a novel than textbook (which I happen to like). For anyone interested in health policy or political strategy this is a must-read.

This is a surprisingly entertaining account of the wheeling and dealing in Washington around the failure of Healthcare Reform in the Clinton Administration. It reads like a novel. This book is important for understanding the upcoming debate on healthcare reform under the Obama administration.

Perhaps only Showdown at Gucci Gulch matches The System for a true focus on how big-time policy really gets enacted - or doesn't as the Clinton health care drive shows. Whereas the Gucci Gulch focused on Reagan's 1986 tax policy overhaul success, The System follows President Clinton's efforts to revamp healthcare in America. What makes The System more representative of the political process than Gucci Gulch is that healthcare reform failed. Because of Clinton management inexperience, and Gingrich "coagulation" and scare tactics, healthcare reform never happened. That may be for the better. Clinton's plan left little to be desired, though it was not the "socialized medicine" that the right claimed it was. Still, that does not mean it was a worthy plan. The real problem, however, that scoring political success for both sides trumped the search for wise policy. Most everyone at the outset agreed that there was something wrong with healthcare, but change failed to occur. And no one is absolved of blame by Johnson and Broder: the President, First Lady, the wider Administration, Congress, the press, interest groups, and the public all allowed this to happen. Again, that doesn't mean that Clinton's plan should have been adopted, but something could have been done to better deal with the many healthcare problems plaguing the nation.

Regardless, The System is a must-read for anyone who wants to see American politics as it really exists.

The System provides a detailed and thorough "case study" of the American political process. While interesting to read simply for the great story the failed Clinton health plan offers, the book's true scholarly value rests in its detail of the agenda-building process. That is, for those interested to see how well theoretical models of the PRE-decisional phase of the American political process describe the "real world," this is the book to read. And it is a great read, to boot.

This is an excellent book for any student of the political process.

The authors are biased. They believe the Hillary Clinton health care plan should have been enacted and present their study from this point of view. Their slant is annoying. However, it ultimately does not detract too much from a very able telling of the conceptualization, selling, manuevering and strategy employed by both sides over the struggle to socialize medicine in the United States.

Although never pretty or highminded as we are taught in civics class, the book shows a democratic (small "d") system at work. Both sides had true believers who were guided by philosophy and were trying to do what was "right." Both sides had craven opportunists driven by darker more mercurial instincts. The American Congress worked to examine the issue and resolve the dispute as the framers had intended: by providing a forum for parties on both sides of the debate to hash out their perspectives and come to a resolution (one must always keep in mind that an equally legitimate action of any legislative body is to say no to proposals that are unwise or do not have sufficient political support.)

This book will educate the average citizen and fascinate the political junkie.

could offer the following assessment as a critique, that Hillary Clinton was too committed to universal care to be considered unbiased. These MSM practitioners fall into the trap of all such: they think that sin resides equally on all sides. If, as they show, Republicans, industry lobbyists, even the Christian Coalition, and ignorant citizens, are arrayed against a project blaming the brave at the Alamo is stupid. The fact that President Obama is now facing similar problems after trying to avoid all the Clinton's so-called errors shows that this is not a fight that is remotely fair. And the press, including the Johnson's and especially the Broder's are in large measure to blame because they adopt a "he said, she said" everyone's a sinner stance that gives the opponents, once again, an unfair advantage. This book does not note the failures of the press to do their job, to find and report the truth. Save your money.