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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Covid-19, Poverty Reduction, And Partisanship In Canada And The United States, Daniel Beland, Shannon Dinan, Philip B. Rocco, Alex Waddan
Covid-19, Poverty Reduction, And Partisanship In Canada And The United States, Daniel Beland, Shannon Dinan, Philip B. Rocco, Alex Waddan
Political Science Faculty Research and Publications
Poor people proved especially vulnerable to economic disruption during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which highlighted the importance of poverty reduction as a policy concern. In this article, we explore the politics of poverty reduction during the COVID-19 crisis in Canada and the United States, two liberal welfare-state regimes where poverty reduction is a key policy issue. We show that, since the beginning of the pandemic, policies likely to reduce poverty significantly have been adopted in both Canada and the United States. Yet, this poverty reduction logic has emerged in different ways in the two countries—with the United States embracing …
The Affordable Care Act In The States: Fragmented Politics, Unstable Policy, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan
The Affordable Care Act In The States: Fragmented Politics, Unstable Policy, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan
Political Science Faculty Research and Publications
Many argue that the frustrated implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) stems from the unprecedented level of political polarization that has surrounded the legislation. This article draws attention to the law's “institutional DNA” as a source of political struggle in the 50 states. As designed, in the context of US federalism, the law fractured authority in ways that has opened up the possibility of contestation and confusion. The successful implementation of the ACA varies not only across state lines but also across the various components of the law. In particular, opponents of the ACA have experienced their greatest …
Stuck In Neutral? Federalism, Policy Instruments, And Counter-Cyclical Responses To Covid-19 In The United States, Philip Rocco, Daniel Beland, Alex Waddan
Stuck In Neutral? Federalism, Policy Instruments, And Counter-Cyclical Responses To Covid-19 In The United States, Philip Rocco, Daniel Beland, Alex Waddan
Political Science Faculty Research and Publications
Federalism plays a foundational role in structuring public expectations about how the United States will respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, as both an unprecedented public-health crisis and an economic recession. As in prior crises, state governments are expected to be primary sites of governing authority, especially when it comes to immediate public-health needs, while it is assumed that the federal government will supply critical counter-cyclical measures to stabilize the economy and make up for major revenue shortfalls in the states. Yet there are reasons to believe that these expectations will not be fulfilled, especially when it comes to the critical …
Obamacare In The Trump Era: Where Are We Now, And Where Are We Going?, Daniel Beland, Philip B. Rocco, Alex Waddan
Obamacare In The Trump Era: Where Are We Now, And Where Are We Going?, Daniel Beland, Philip B. Rocco, Alex Waddan
Political Science Faculty Research and Publications
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, is the most significant US social policy reform in half a century, and the most politically fractious. Since the law was signed by President Obama, Republicans have mobilised against it, using courts and state governments to undermine the implementation of the legislation, which was set to unfold gradually over a nine‐year period. As we describe in this article, however, the beginning of the Trump presidency in January 2017 marked a turning point in the politics of Obamacare. In the absence of Obama's veto, legislative retrenchment became a viable option …
The New Politics Of Us Health Care Prices: Institutional Reconfiguration And The Emergence Of All-Payer Claims Databases, Philip Rocco, Andrew S. Kelly, Daniel Beland, Michael Kinane
The New Politics Of Us Health Care Prices: Institutional Reconfiguration And The Emergence Of All-Payer Claims Databases, Philip Rocco, Andrew S. Kelly, Daniel Beland, Michael Kinane
Political Science Faculty Research and Publications
Prices are a significant driver of health care cost in the United States. Existing research on the politics of health system reform has emphasized the limited nature of policy entrepreneurs’ efforts at solving the problem of rising prices through direct regulation at the state level. Yet this literature fails to account for how change agents in the states gradually reconfigured the politics of prices, forging new, transparency-based policy instruments called all-payer claims databases (APCDs), which are designed to empower consumers, purchasers, and states to make informed market and policy choices. Drawing on pragmatist institutional theory, this article shows how APCDs …
Obamacare And The Politics Of Universal Health Insurance Coverage In The United States, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan
Obamacare And The Politics Of Universal Health Insurance Coverage In The United States, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan
Political Science Faculty Research and Publications
In the USA, universal coverage has long been a key objective of liberal reformers. Yet, despite the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) (commonly known as ‘Obamacare’) in 2010, the USA is not set to provide health care coverage to all, even if and when that reform is fully implemented. This article explores this issue by asking the following question: Why was a clear commitment to universal coverage, the norm in other industrialized countries, excluded as a core objective of the PPACA and how has post-enactment politics at both the federal and the state level further …
Reassessing Policy Drift: Social Policy Change In The United States, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan
Reassessing Policy Drift: Social Policy Change In The United States, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan
Political Science Faculty Research and Publications
As formulated by Jacob Hacker, the concept of policy drift turned institutional theories of public policy on their heads by suggesting that consequential policy changes often happen in the absence of reform. Especially prevalent in times of political gridlock or stasis, policy drift is a useful concept for capturing how inaction can gradually diminish the effectiveness of social programmes over time. By highlighting cases of difficult-to-see policy inaction, however, Hacker ’s concept sets a high bar for empirical scholarship. In this article, we suggest that analyzing policy drift requires attention to comparative policy outcomes, the implementation of reforms intended to …