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Stephen Skowronek

The Policy State: An American Predicament Hardcover – October 23, 2017

by Karen Orren (Author), Stephen Skowronek (Author)

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“A sterling example of political science at its best.”
―Timothy Shenk, The New Republic

Policy is government’s ready response to changing times, the key to its successful adaptation. It tackles problems as they arise, from foreign relations and economic affairs to race relations and family affairs. Karen Orren and Stephen Skowronek take a closer look at this well-known reality of modern governance. In The Policy State they point out that policy is not the only way in which America was governed historically, and they describe the transformation that occurred as policy took over more and more of the work of government, emerging as the raison d’être of the state’s operation.

Rather than analyze individual policies to document this change, Orren and Skowronek examine policy’s effect on legal rights and the formal structure of policy-making authority. Rights and structure are the principal elements of government that historically constrained policy and protected other forms of rule. The authors assess the emergence of a new “policy state,” in which rights and structure shed their distinctive characteristics and take on the attributes of policy.

Orren and Skowronek address the political controversies swirling around American government as a consequence of policy’s expanded domain. On the one hand, the policy state has rendered government more flexible, responsive, and inclusive. On the other, it has mangled government’s form, polarized its politics, and sowed deep distrust of its institutions. The policy state frames an American predicament: policy has eroded the foundations of government, even as the policy imperative pushes us ever forward, into an uncertain future.

Editorial Reviews

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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.”―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

“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!”―James A. Morone, Brown University

“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.’”―Richard H. Pildes, New York University School of Law

About the Author

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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard University Press; 1st edition (October 23, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674728742
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674728745
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,381,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #191 in Public Administration Law
- #714 in Public Affairs & Administration (Books)
- #6,170 in U.S. Political Science

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Samuel Johnson

Must reading on US politics and policymaking

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 5, 2018

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THE POLICY STATE documents the evolution of the triumph of policy over institutional structure and legal/constitutional rights in US governance. Policy is king, and institutional structures and personal rights now are routinely adjusted to the immediate needs of policymaking. That, the authors argue, is how governance in the US has operated increasingly in recent decades. The ubiquity of policy has politicized science, spawned intense ideological polarization and stoked popular disaffection with the complex policy muddle that is modern governance.

The authors chart the role of the executive, legislature and judiciary in producing this result. Key instigators of these changes were the progressive reformers of the early 20th century.

Their final chapter -- chapter five -- summarizes the overall problem as they see it. The book is must reading for scholars and analysts of US politics and policymaking.