Forgotten: How Congress Ignores the Lower and Middle Classes -- Power and the Policy Agenda -- Congressional Attention to Economic Issues -- Economic Interests and the Economic Agenda in Congress -- Empowering Wall Street: Congressional Concern for Financial Deregulation -- Financial Re-regulation? Economic Crisis and Shifting Power Dynamics. -- Ignoring Main Street: Congressional Disinterest in the Minimum Wage -- Concluding Thoughts on Economic and Political Hierarchy.
Summary:
"Wealthy interests exercise influence over the policy agenda of the United States not just by gaining access or influencing narrow domains, but by affecting which issues are treated as problems worthy of policymakers' attention and which are not. Through structural and kinetic power - the sway of one's position in the economic structure and the deployment of resources in the policy process - the wealthy shape the overall agenda and the policy outcomes that follow. Through this theoretical framework, the authors illuminate a core challenge facing democracy as practiced in the United States, where economic elites hold disproportionate influence in the policy process and frequently hijack the policy agenda"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.