AMERICAN SOCIETYThe interpenetration of what were previously
regarded as separate political and economic af-
fairs is a central fact. The interplay takes many
different forms. For a long time government has
set rules for maintaining or lessening business
competition; it has regulated the plane or mode of
competition, the conditions of employment, and
the place and functioning of labor unions. Pres-
sure groups, based on economic interests, cease-
lessly attempt to influence law-making bodies and
executive agencies. Governmental fiscal and mone-
tary policies constitute a major factor influencing
economic activity. As the economic role of the
state has expanded, economic forces increasingly
affect government itself and so-called private cor-
porations increasingly have come to be ‘‘public
bodies’’ in many ways, rivaling some sovereign
states in size and influence. The post-1980s politi-
cal movements for a smaller role for the central
government resulted in a partial dismantling of
the ‘‘welfare state’’ but did not remove the impor-
tant linkages of state and economy.
Political Institutions. In ideology and law the
American polity is a parliamentary republic, feder-
al in form, marked by a strong central executive
but with a tripartite separation of powers. From
the highly limited state of the eighteenth century,
the actual government has grown in size and scope
and has become more complex, centralized, and
bureaucratized. Partly because of pervasive in-
volvement in international affairs, since World
War II a large permanent military establishment
has grown greatly in size and importance. In 1996,
the Department of Defense included 3.2 million
persons, and total defense and veterans outlays
amounted to $303 billion. The executive agencies,
especially the presidency, became for decades in-
creasingly important relative to the Congress, al-
though the 1990s brought a resurgence of con-
gressional power. Among other changes, the
following appear to be especially consequential:
- Continuing struggles over the character of
the ‘‘welfare state,’’ dedicated to maintain-
ing certain minimal safeguards for health
and economic welfare; - High development of organized interest
groups, which propose and ‘‘veto’’ nearly
all important legislation. The unorganized
general public retains only an episodic and
delayed power to ratify or reject whole
programs of government action. A rapid
increase in the number of Political Action
Committees—from 2551 in 1980 to 4016
in 1995—is only one indication of the
importance of organized interests;- Decreased cohesion and effectiveness of
political parties in aggregating interests,
compromising parties in conflict, and
reaching clear public decisions; - Increasingly volatile voting and diminished
party regularity and party commitment
(split-ticket voting, low rates of voting,
large proportion of the electorate with no
firm party reference).
American political parties are coalitions of
diverse actors and interests, with accompanying
weak internal discipline, but they remain relatively
stable under a system of single-member districts
and plurality voting—’’first past the post.’’ Al-
though the polity is subject to the hazards of
instability associated with a presidential rather
than parliamentary system, the national federal
system, the separation of powers, and the centrali-
ty of the Constitution and the judiciary combine to
support the traditional two-party electoral arrange-
ment, although support for a third party appears
to be growing (Lipset 1995, p. 6).Historically, political parties in the United
States have been accommodationist: They have
served to articulate and aggregate interests through
processes of negotiation and compromise. The
resulting ‘‘packages’’ of bargains have converted
diverse and diffuse claims into particular electoral
decisions. To work well, such parties must be able
to plan nominations, arrange for representativeness,
and sustain effective competition. In the late twen-
tieth century, competitiveness was weakened by
volatile elections—for example, landslides and dead-
locks with rapidly shifting votes—and by party
incoherence. In the nominating process the mass
media and direct primaries partly replaced party
leaders and patronage. Representativeness was
reduced by polarization of activists, single-issue
voting, and low turnouts in primaries. And the
inability of parties to protect legislators seemed to
increase the influence of single-issue organiza-
tions and to enlarge the scope of ‘‘symbolic’’ ac-
tions. Hard choices, therefore, tended to be de-
ferred (cf. Fiorina 1980, p. 39).