Broken Contract?
TRANSFORMING AMERICAN POLITICS
Lawrence C. Dodd, Series Editor
Dramatic changes in political institutions and behavior over the past three decades have underscored the dynamic nature of American politics, confronting political scientists with a new and pressing intellectual agenda. The pioneering work of early postwar scholars, while laying a firm empirical foundation for contemporary scholarship, failed to consider how American politics might change or recognize the forces that would make fundamental change inevitable. In reassessing the static interpretations fostered by these classic studies, political scientists are now examining the underlying dynamics that generate transformational change.
Transforming American Politics brings together texts and monographs that address four closely related aspects of change. A first concern is documenting and explaining recent changes in American politicsin institutions, processes, behavior, and policymaking. A second is reinterpreting classic studies and theories to provide a more accurate perspective on postwar politics. The series looks at historical change to identify recurring patterns of political transformation within and across the distinctive eras of American politics. Last and perhaps most important, the series presents new theories and interpretations that explain the dynamic processes at work and thus clarify the direction of contemporary politics. All of the books focus on the central theme of transformationtransformation in both the conduct of American politics and in the way we study and understand its many aspects.
FORTHCOMING TITLES
Midterm: The Elections of 1994 in Context, edited by Philip A. Klinkner
The Divided Democrats: Ideological Unity, Party Reform, and Presidential Elections, William G. Mayer
Revolving Gridlock, David Brady and Craig Volden
The Irony of Reform: Roots of American Disenchantment, G. Calvin Mackenzie
Governing Partners: State-Local Relations in the United States, Russell L. Hanson
Seeing Red: How the Cold War Shaped American Politics, John Kenneth White
Congress and the Administrative State, Second Edition, Lawrence C. Dodd and Richard L. Schott
New Media in American Politics, Richard Davis and Diana Owen
Extraordinary Politics: Dissent and Collective Action in the American System, Charles C. Euchner
The Tragic Presidency, Robert L. Lineberry
Transforming American Politics
First published 1996 by Westview Press
Published 2018 by Routledge
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Broken contract?: changing relationships between Americans and their
government / edited by Stephen C. Craig,
p. cm.(Transforming American politics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8133-2262-6.ISBN 0-8133-2263-4 (pbk.)
1. Political participationUnited States. 2. Political culture
United States. 3. Legitimacy of governmentsUnited States.
4. United StatesPolitics and government1989- 5. Political
leadershipUnited StatesPublic opinion. 6. Public opinion
United States. I. Craig, Stephen C. II. Series.
JK1764.B76 1995
306.2097309049dc20
95-18230
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-2263-6 (pbk)
Stephen C. Craig
On January 20, 1993, with Bill Clinton sworn in as our forty-second president and the Democrats assuming control of both elected branches of government, it seemed possible to believe that the era of gridlock was over and that maybejust maybeWashingtons political class would respond to the message of urgency and concern sent by voters when they cast their ballots two-and-a-half months earlier. According to Newsweek columnist Joe Klein, 1992 had been a year in which civilians dragged the politicians, [campaign professionals] and press kicking and screaming into the election they wanted. It was a year [when] the mystique of pollsters, strategists and mediamasters was put in proper perspective. It was, at long last, the Year of the Voter. An electorate that was typically apathetic, malleable and bored with politics became suddenly obsessed with the process, seeing the presidential contest in particular as a turning point for the nation and following campaign events with a heightened sense of purpose. Everywhere you went, said Klein (1992, p. 14), on supermarket checkout lines, in coffee shops and saloons, around kitchen tables the talk was of Ross and George and Bill. And when it was over, there was a cautious optimism that things would be different.
That, however, was then and this is now. On January 4, 1995, Newt Gingrich took the oath as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republicans ascended to the majority in both houses of Congress for the first time in more than forty years, and the world of Washington politicsalong with the politics of many states (where the GOP enjoyed dramatic gains in 1994 gubernatorial and legislative races)was turned upside down once again. Clinton and the Democrats had not necessarily failed, at least by traditional standards, but they fell far short of implementing the agenda of social and institutional change that was critical to their success in the previous election. As it happens, voters were not of a mood to be patient: Given the choice between politics as usual and a bold (albeit uncertain) new beginning, they resoundingly opted for the latter.
Only with the passage of time will we truly be able to understand the meaning of that choice. Perhaps, as many on the political right fervently hope, it marked an end to the already tottering New Deal coalition and a triumph for the conservative ideal of limited government. Or perhaps it was primarily an indictment of the Democratic majority for its inability to address the fears and concerns of citizens (especially middle-class citizens) around the countryin which case, Republicans must act quickly and effectively or else face a similar judgment in the not-too-distant future (Broder 1995). A third possible scenario is that voters today have little confidence in either party, and so Republican failure may set the stage for a third-party challenge stronger than any since the 1850s. Whatever the eventual outcome, there can be no doubt that the elections of 1992 and 1994 left the relationship between the American public and its leaders in a state of flux. Although the nature of that relationship remains unclear, it almost certainly will be quite different than in the past.
For now, though, all eyes are focused on Capitol Hilland, more specifically, on efforts by GOP congressional leaders to fulfill the Contract with America put forth during the 1994 campaign by Gingrich and his allies (see ). This contract identifies ten areas of policy action (including balanced-budget and term-limits amendments, middle-class and capital-gains tax cuts, increased attention to national defense, Social Security protection, welfare reform, anticrime measures, and several others) on which Republican candidates for the House pledged a floor vote within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. Not everyone believes that the contract represents a step forward, especially in terms of its economic implications. Robert Samuelson, for example, complained that as a governing blueprint, it fails because it panders to popular inconsistency. Americans are [both] hopelessly dependent on Big Government and rabidly contemptuous of it. Rhetorically, liberals and conservatives appeal to one impulse or the other by making promises they cannot fulfill. Liberals are too scared of a public that scorns government to raise taxes; and conservatives are too scared of a public dependent on government to cut spending. The result is much noisy fiddling around the edges (Samuelson 1994, p. 45). There are, according to Samuelson, only two possibilities: Either Republicans keep their promises and disappoint; or they break their promises and disappointand public cynicism will continue unabated in each instance (p. 45).
