Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:54:36.125Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

America's Political Crisis: The Unsustainable State in a Time of Unraveling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2009

Lawrence Jacobs  and
Desmond King
Lawrence Jacobs
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Desmond King
Affiliation:
Nuffield College, Oxford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The American economy and financial system is experiencing upheaval on a scale not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. A number of the largest and most established banks and investment firms have declared bankruptcy (including Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers) or been taken over at fire-sale rates (as was the case, for example, with Merrill Lynch). In the fall of 2008, Congress and the U.S. Treasury along with the Federal Reserve Bank committed more than eight trillion dollars in payments, loans, and guarantees of various sorts to prop up financial institutions (including the semi-governmental mortgage entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) as well as the country's largest insurer, American International Group (AIG). The speed, number, and scope of these interventions lack historical precedent.

Type
In Focus: Our Political and Financial Crisis of 2008
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 277 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aberbach, Joel D. 2003. “The U.S. Federal Executive in an Era of Change” Governance 16: 373–99.10.1111/1468-0491.00221CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aberbach, Joel D., and Rockman, Bert A. 2000. In the Web of Politics: Three Decades of the U.S. Federal Executive. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Allen, Franklin, and Gale, Douglas. 2007. Understanding Financial Crises. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, Edmund, and Landler, Mark. 2008. “U.S. May Take Ownership Stake in Banks.” New York Times, October 8.Google Scholar
Bartels, Larry. 2008. Unequal Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank, and Jones, Bryan. 1993. Agendas and Instability in American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Becker, Jo, Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, and Labaton, Stephen. 2008. “White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire.” New York Times, December 21.Google Scholar
Block, Fred. 1977. “The Ruling Class Does Not Rule: Notes on the Marxist Theory of the State.” Socialist Revolution 7: 6–28.Google Scholar
Brown, Lawrence D., and Jacobs, Lawrence R.. 2008. The Private Abuse of the Public Interest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226076454.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citrin, Jack. 1974. “Comment: The Political Relevance of Trust in Government.” American Political Science Review 68 (3): 973–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citrin, Jack, and Green, Donald Philip. 1986. “Presidential Leadership and the Resurgence of Trust in Government.” British Journal of Political Science 16: 431–53.10.1017/S0007123400004518CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creswell, Julie, and White, Ben. 2008. “The Guys from ‘Government Sachs.’” New York Times, October 19.Google Scholar
Derthick, Martha. 1979. Policy Making for Social Security. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Easton, David. 1975. “A Re-assessment of the Concept of Political Support.” British Journal of Political Science 5: 435–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gans, Herbert. 1972. “The Positive Functions of Poverty.” American Journal of Sociology 78 (September): 275–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gersick, Connie. 1991. “Revolutionary Change Theories: A Multilevel Exploration of the Punctuated Equilibrium Paradigm.” The Academy of Management Review 16 (1): 10–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Givel, Michael. 2006. “Punctuated Equilibrium in Limbo: The Tobacco Lobby and U.S. State Policy Making From 1990 to 2003.” Policy Studies Journal 43 (3): 405–18.10.1111/j.1541-0072.2006.00179.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guha, Krishna. 2008. “Paulson Rues Shortage of Firepower as Battle Raged.” Financial Times, December 31.Google Scholar
Hacker, Jacob, and Pierson, Paul. 2005. Off Center. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hall, Peter, and Soskice, David, eds. 2001. Varieties of Capitalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntington, Samuel. 1975. “The United States.” In The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission, ed. Crozier, Michel, Huntington, Samuel, and Watanuki, Joji. New York: New York University Press, 59–118.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Lawrence, and King, Desmond, eds. 2009. The Unsustainable American State. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, Lawrence R., and Page, Benjamin I.. 2005. “Who Influences U.S. Foreign Policy?” American Political Science Review 99 (February): 107–24.10.1017/S000305540505152XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, Robert G. 2009. So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert, and Milner, Helen, eds. 1996. Internationalization and Domestic Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511664168CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Desmond. 2007. Separate and Unequal: African Americans and the US Federal Government. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Desmond, and Smith, Rogers M.. 2005. “Racial Orders in American Political Development.” American Political Science Review 99 (February): 75–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labaton, Stephen. 2008. “The Reckoning: Agency's '04 Rule Lets Banks Pile Up New Debt.” New York Times, October 3.Google Scholar
Lee, Spike. 2006. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. HBO Documentary.Google Scholar
Lindblom, Charles. 1959. “The Science of Muddling Through.” Public Administration Review 19: 79–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindblom, Charles. 1979. Politics and Markets. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lowi, Theodore J. 1979. The End of Liberalism. New York: W W Norton.Google Scholar
Mandel, Ernest. 1975. Late Capitalism. London: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Arthur H. 1974a. “Political Issues and Trust in Government: 1964–1970.” American Political Science Review 68: 951–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Arthur H. 1974b. “Rejoinder to ‘Comment’ by Jack Citrin: Political Discontent or Ritualism.” American Political Science Review 68: 989–1001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Arthur H. 1979. “The Institutional Focus of Political Distrust.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Moe, Terry. 1985. “The Politicized Presidency.” In The New Directions in American Politics, ed. Chubb, John and Peterson, Paul. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 235–71.Google Scholar
Morgenson, Gretchen. 2008a. “Behind Insurer's Crisis, Blind Eye to a Web of Risk.” New York Times, September 28.Google Scholar
Morgenson, Gretchen. 2008b. “Debt Watchdogs: Tamed or Caught Napping?” New York Times, December 7.Google Scholar
Nie, Norman H., Verba, Sidney, and Petrocik, John R.. 1976. The Changing American Voter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
O'Connor, James. 1973. The Fiscal Crisis of the State. New York: St. Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 2000. “Path Dependence, Increasing Returns, and the Study of Politics.” American Political Science Review 94 (2): 251–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PikettyT,. T,., and Saez, E.. 2007. “Income and Wage Inequality in the United States, 1913–2002.” In Top Incomes Over the Twentieth Century, ed. Atkinson, A. B. and Piketty, T.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Piven, Frances Fox, and Cloward, Richard A.. 1993. Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare. 2nd ed. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Polanyi, Karl. 1944. The Great Transformation. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Securities, and Exchange Commission. 2008. SEC's Oversight of Bear Stearns and Related Entities: The Consolidated Supervised Entity Program. Office of Inspector General Office of Audits, Report No. 446-A, September 25.Google Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth. 1979. “Institutional Arrangements and Equilibrium in Multidimensional Voting Models.” American Journal of Political Science 23 (February): 27–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shils, Edward. 1958. “The Concentration and Dispersion of Charisma: Their Bearing on Economic Policy in Underdeveloped Countries.” World Politics 11 (October): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shils, Edward. 1965. “Charisma, Order, and Status.” American Sociological Review 30 (April): 199–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skocpol, Theda. 1979. States and Social Revolutions. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skocpol, Theda. 1985. “Bringing the State Back In: Strategies of Analysis in Current Research.” In Bringing the State Back In, ed. Evans, P., Rueschemeyer, D., and Skocpol, T.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Skowronek, Stephen. 1982. Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877–1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sniderman, Paul M. 1981. A Question of Loyalty. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Snyder, Jack. 1991. Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Sorkin, Andrew Ross, and Walsh, Mary Williams. 2008. “A.I.G. May Get More in Bailout.” New York Times, November 10.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, Joseph, and Bilmes, Linda. 2008. The Three Trillion Dollar War. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
U.S. Government Accountability Office. 2009. Troubled Asset Relief Program: Status of Efforts to Address Transparency and Accountability Issues. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Accountability Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Treasury Department. 2008. Responses to Questions of the First Report of the Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Treasury, December 30.Google Scholar
Warren, Elizabeth, Hensarling, Jeb, Neiman, Richard H., and Silvers, Damon. 2008. First Report of the Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization. Washington, D.C: Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization.Google Scholar
Warren, Elizabeth, Hensarling, Jeb, Neiman, Richard H., Silvers, Damon, and Sununu, John E.. 2009. Second Report of the Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization.Google Scholar
Weatherford, M. Stephen. 1987. “How Does Government Performance Influence Political Support?” Political Behavior 9: 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Max. 1978. Economy and Society. Ed. Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
White, Lawrence J. 1991. The S&L Debacle. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wildavsky, Aaron. 1964. Politics of the Budgetary Process. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.Google Scholar