Thread by @MattGrossmann

“The Great Broadening” is a great big picture look at US policymaking, full of insight on recent political history

TLDR: Federal government massively broadened in scope in 60s-70s, presaging a conservative backlash, polarization, & move to oversight

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amazon.com/Great-Broadeni…

Congress passed a lot more important laws from 1961-1976 (during what I call “The Long Great Society”). This was largely bipartisan, across the policy spectrum; was reflected in numerous indicators of political activity & permanent new institutions

From: The Great Broadening
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“The Great Broadening” shows that the extensive 60s-70s lawmaking led to a largely-permanent expansion of the policy agenda; conservative backlash was able to stop the growth of the agenda, but not reverse it

Reflected in topics of hearings (below), bills, & budgets
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“The Great Broadening” had 2 huge legislative consequences:

1) Congress passed fewer but larger bills, addressing many different topics at once but still leaving most policymaking to agencies

2) Congress stopped holding hearings on bills & shifted to executive oversight

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Polarization came after “The Great Broadening,” largely led by conservatives (moving right steadily starting in 1978); interest group explosion also came in its wake, with most fighting to protect old benefits & stop new regulation; Reps had helped expansion, later opposed
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I’m skeptical of only 1 part of “The Great Broadening” story: that social movements played major role in creating it; I find little evidence of that in policy history (in Artists of The Possible); it expanded into many non-protest issues & protests often came after expansion
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I also recommend method discussion; we shouldn’t pretend that variables like elections, interest groups, or media have ~constant influence; we’ve seen only 1 history: lots of influences came together at once & permanently changed what came after

7/7 Buy:
amazon.com/Great-Broadeni…