Chapter 17
Domestic Policy
1. What types of politics may matter to whether
and how government acts on any given issue?
2. How do America’s social welfare policies and
programs differ from those of many other
modern democracies?
3. Why are some social welfare policies and
programs politically protected while others are
politically imperiled?
4. Is there a political consensus about how to
address the solvency challenges facing major
social welfare programs?
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Learning Objectives
2
5. Why have government regulations on certain
big businesses been imposed over the
objections of those industries?
6. Why are environmental policies designed and
enforced differently in America than in other
industrialized nations?
7. Does just one type of politics drive
environmental policies and programs?
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Learning Objectives
3
WHO GOVERNS?
1. How, if at all, have Americans’ views of
government’s responsibility to help the“deserving
poor” changed over time?
2. Why are some government social welfare programs
politically protected while others are politically
imperiled?
TO WHAT ENDS?
1. What does the Constitution mean by “promote the
general Welfare”?
2. Who should administer federal welfare programs?
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Introduction
4
 Cost vs. Benefit
 Legitimacy
 Perceived costs and
benefits can be:
 Widely distributed
 Narrowly
concentrated
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Policymaking Politics
Revisited
5
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A Way of Classifying and Explaining
the Politics of Different Policy Issues
6
 “To provide for the . . . general
Welfare”
 Restrict spending? OR
 Meet national needs?
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Social Welfare Policy
7
 From the New Deal to the New Health
Care Law
 Insurance program (unemployed/elderly)
 Assistance program (blind, dependent
children and aged)
 Means test
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Social Welfare Policy
8
 FDR and the New Deal
 Social Security Act (1935)
In 1932, unemployed workers
line up at a soup kitchen
during the Great Depression.
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Social Welfare Policy
9
 Johnson and the Great Society
 Medicaid and Medicare (1965)
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Social Welfare Policy
10
 Obama
 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(2010)
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Social Welfare Policy
11
Two Kinds of Social Welfare Programs
 Benefits most
 Most pay
 No means test
 Majoritarian politics
 Social Security and
Medicare
 Issue: cost
 Benefits few
 Most pay
 Means tested
 Client politics
 TANF and SNAP
 Issue: legitimacy
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Social Welfare Policy
12
 Social Security and Medicare:
Majoritarian Politics
Opinion on Social Security and Medicare
Proposals, By Generation
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Social Welfare Policy
13
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Public Opinion on Changing
Medicare and Social Security
14
 Social Welfare Policy in America:
Four Distinctive Features
1. More restrictive view of who is entitled to
governmental assistance
2. Slower to embrace the welfare state
3. States play a large role
4. Nongovernmental organizations play a large role
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Social Welfare Policy
15
 From AFDC to TANF: Client Politics
 Existing state programs
 Federal government regulations governing
the programs
 Public opinion changes
 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF)
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Social Welfare Policy
16
 Medicaid: Client and Majoritarian
 Means-tested
 Benefits broader population
 Interest group support
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Social Welfare Policy
17
 Relationship between wealth and
power
 Antitrust Laws: Majoritarian Politics
 Sherman Act (1890)
 Federal Trade Commission Act (1914
 Clayton Act (1914)
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Business Regulation Policy
18
 Labor and Occupational Health and
Safety: Interest Group Politics
 Wagner Act
 National Labor Relations Board
 Occupational Safety and Health Act (1970)
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Business Regulation Policy
19
 Agriculture Subsidies: Client Politics
Dairy farmers get
government subsidies for
their milk production.
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Business Regulation Policy
20
 Consumer and Environmental
Protection: Entrepreneurial Politics
 Auto safety/antipollution
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Business Regulation Policy
21
Entrepreneurial politics: Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle, published in 1906,
shocked readers with its description of conditions in the meat-packing
industry and helped bring about passage of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.
 The Politics of “Cap and Trade”
 Environmental Policy in America: Three
Distinctive Features
 Adversarial
 State dependent
 Interest group pressures
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Environmental Policy
22
Agricultural
Pesticides:
Client Politics
Endangered Species:
Entrepreneurial
Politics
Environmental
Policy
Pollution from
Automobiles:
Majoritarian Politics
Acid Rain:
Interest Group
Politics
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Environmental Policy
23
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New Federal Safety Regulations
for Deep Water Oil Drilling
24
Click picture to play video
Taking a closer look:
1. What persons or agencies oversee
federal environmental policy?
2. How are new regulations an example
of adversarial policy?
3. Who pays for costs associated with
administering environmental regulations?
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New Federal Safety Regulations
for Deep Water Oil Drilling
25
 Does just one type of politics drive
domestic policies and programs?
 Which type of politics matters most on
economic policy issues?
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Beyond Domestic Policy
26