How Policy Shapes Politics
Rights, Courts, Litigation, and the Struggle Over Injury Compensation
Published on 15. January 2015
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-19-975611-7 (ISBN)
Description
The 'global rise of judicial powe' has been called one of the most significant developments in late twentieth and early twenty-first century politics. In this book, Jeb Barnes and Thomas F. Burke examine the political consequences of the growing reliance on courts and litigation in public policy by analyzing the field of injury compensation, in which judicialized and bureaucratized programs operate side-by-side. Their study mixes quantitative data on a wide range of injury compensation policies with three in-depth case historical studies in which they trace political struggles over Social Security Disability Insurance, asbestos injury litigation, and the obscure but fascinating controversy over injuries purportedly caused by vaccines. They conclude that while social insurance programs that compensate for injury tend to bring social interests together, the use of litigation divides interests between victims and villains, winners and losers and so creates a comparatively fractious, chaotic politics.
Reviews / Votes
The contribution of the book is a map of policy complexity with a focus on two engaging "policy designs," adversarial and bureaucratic legalism. In this it advances the tradition of law and society scholarship by linking scholarship from the broader and more sophisticated study of law to the field through three lively cases. * J. Brigham, University of Massachusetts, CHOICE * Brilliant! How Policy Shapes Politics is a landmark. It shows that how we compensate for injuries or illness is a fateful policy choice. One path leads to sharp political conflict with big winners and losers, the other to stable, reasoned and reasonable distribution of costs and benefits. Richly based in evidence and elegantly composed, this study is a must-read for scholars of law, tort litigation, and how public policies- including judicial decisions- shape politics. * Charles R. Epp, Professor, School of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Kansas * I know of no book that does a better job explaining how 'adversarial legalism' shapes public policy. Using well-crafted case studies and carefully designed quantitative analysis, Barnes and Burke help us understand the different patterns of politics created by bureaucratic legalism and adversarial legalism. The clarity and depth of their case studies make this a great book for both undergraduate courses and graduate seminars. * R. Shep Melnick, Thomas P. O'Neill Professor of American Politics, Boston College *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
575 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-975611-7 (9780199756117)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Jeb E. Barnes | Thomas F. Burke
How Policy Shapes Politics
Rights, Courts, Litigation, and the Struggle Over Injury Compensation
E-Book
12/2014
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€29.49
Available for download
Persons
Jeb Barnes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Southern California. A former litigator with a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School and PHd from UC Berkeley, he has written extensively on the intersection between law, politics and public policy in the United States.
Tom Burke is Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard and at the University of California-Berkeley, and a research fellow at the Brookings Institution and with the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Program. He is the co-author with Lief Carter of the 8th edition of Reason in Law (2010) and the author of Lawyers, Lawsuits and Legal Rights (2002).
Tom Burke is Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard and at the University of California-Berkeley, and a research fellow at the Brookings Institution and with the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Program. He is the co-author with Lief Carter of the 8th edition of Reason in Law (2010) and the author of Lawyers, Lawsuits and Legal Rights (2002).
Content
List of Figures ; List of Tables ; Acknowledgements ; Chapter 1. Introduction ; Chapter 2. Congressional Hearings and the Politics of Adversarial and Bureaucratic Legalism ; Chapter 3. Social Security Disability Insurance: The Politics of Bureaucratic Legalism ; Chapter 4. Asbestos Injury Compensation: The Politics of Adversarial Legalism and Layered Policies ; Chapter 5. Vaccine Injury Compensation: The Politics of Shifting Policies ; Chapter 6. Conclusion ; Appendix I: Hearing Data ; Appendix II: Model of Hearing Participation ; Appendix III: Content Analysis of Interest Group Positions on the FAIR Act in the Media ; Works Cited ; Cases Cited