American Politics Commons^™

Family Values And Presidential Elections: The Use And Abuse Of The Family And Medical Leave Act In The 1992 And 1996 Campaigns, Steven K. Wisensale

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article explores how and why the debate on family leave policy became intertwined with the discussion of family values during the 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns. It covers the emergence of family values in political debates in general and in election-year strategies in particular, the developmental history of family leave policy, including important benchmarks that occurred at both the state and federal levels. It also considers the role played by family values and family leave during the 1992 election and how the family leave bill and at least two other legislative proposals became important components of the discussions about …

The Sargent Governorship: Leader And Legacy, Richard A. Hogarty

New England Journal of Public Policy

Following in the long line of succession of his predecessors, Francis W. Sargent served as the sixty-third governor of Massachusetts. A lifelong Republican, he was a man of character and sterling Yankee blue-blood lineage with the stature of a political independent. Grappling with a series of hot political issues and braving the passions and divisions spawned by the war in Vietnam, he was one of the ablest and most intriguing men ever to be governor. He worked hard at knowing his constituents and their concerns, but he did not always provide them with easy answers. Several new ideas were transformed …

Irish Identity Politics: The Reinvention Of Speaker John W. Mccormack Of Boston, Garrison Nelson

New England Journal of Public Policy

From his election in 1940 as Majority Leader to his last day as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1971, John W. McCormack of Boston occupied the highest rungs of leadership in the Congress. Many biographies and autobiographies cover the lives and public careers of five Speakers, but not one has been devoted to McCormack — not because he was unimportant and irrelevant. He was a very private man who could rearrange the facts of his life to suit his political needs. The story had great resonance in Boston because its Irish gatekeepers — James Michael Curley, John …

Beyond The Gender Gap: Women Of Color In The 1996 Election, Carol Hardy-Fanta

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

National and State exit polls provide a wealth of information on the public opinions of women of color, beyond the choice of candidate and standard research questions of partisanship and ideology. Policy issues and ballot questions provide a window into the positions of voters who are women of color. (Many more than those analyzed for this paper are available in the exit poll datasets.) One of the major conclusions of this study must be to expand the political agenda of women and communities of color and insist on more representative polling with larger minority samples (especially for Asian Americans). Nevertheless, …

Puerto Rican Politics In The United States: A Preliminary Assessment, José E. Cruz

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article examines the following question: What characterizes Puerto Rican political development and what promise does electoral politics hold for Puerto Ricans in the United States? Its central premise is that an analytical framework which focuses on economic deprivation and racial prejudice is partial and inadequate to an understanding of the political experience of Puerto Ricans. Throughout the years, mainland Puerto Ricans have moved in and out of the political stage holding the banners of anti-colonialism, separatism, incorporation, and ethnic identity in search of vantage points from which they can satisfy their cultural, social, and economic needs. Despite the Airbus …

Mexican-American Class Structure And Political Participation, Jorge Chapa

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article examines the political attitudes and participation of Mexican-Americans in the context of Milton Gordon's assimilation theory and William Julius Wilson's analyses of bifurcated economic structures resulting in middle-class and lower- or underclass populations. For Gordon, civic assimilation was a step toward complete assimilation. After demonstrating that the Mexican-American population has not achieved parity with the Anglo population even when controlling for generational differences over five decades, the author specifically examines the political attitudes and practices of lower-class (high school dropouts) and middle-class (high school graduates) third-generation Mexican-Americans. The two class groups have similar attitudes about bilingual education and …

"New" Civil Rights Strategies For Latino Political Empowerment, Seth Racusen

New England Journal of Public Policy

Latinos became the largest "minority" group and significantly increased their political representation in Massachusetts in the past decade. Even with these gains, their political power is not nearly commensurate with the size of their population. Many aspects of Latino political demographics, including a large immigrant population with low citizenship rates, high poverty rates, and dispersion across many electoral districts, contribute to their underrepresentation. The political demographics facing Massachusetts Latinos have led many analysts to prescribe alternative electoral systems as avenues to achieve increased political representation. This article reviews the critiques of the 1970s and 1980s civil rights redistricting strategies and …

Latina Women And Political Leadership: Implications For Latino Community Empowerment, Carol Hardy-Fanta

New England Journal of Public Policy

Mainstream studies of Latino politics have tended to reflect a primarily male view of political participation and political leadership. In such a view, the study of Latino political leadership continues the tradition of viewing leadership as derived from official positions in elected or appointed office and informal organizations. This article demonstrates that (1) contrary to prevailing myths, Latina women in Massachusetts run for and are elected to office in very high numbers, and (2) when the definition of political leadership is expanded to include community-based, not solely position-derived, forms of leadership, Latino community empowerment may depend, to a great extent, …

Communities Of Color Unite For Places At The Welcome Table, Harold Horton

Trotter Review

The “vote” is often referred to as the political equalizer in a democratic society, because when citizens enter the voting booth they express an inalienable right that belongs to all, regardless of education, income, gender, national origin, religious preference, or color. And, as we recall from history, on many occasions one vote has made the difference between winning or losing a crucial decision or political contest.

The Influence Of Europe On The Young Jfk, Nigel Hamilton

New England Journal of Public Policy

I think that of all twentieth-century American presidents, John F. Kennedy is considered — by Europeans at least — to be the most Eurocentric in his sympathies and political orientation. In the days ahead we shall be reexamining the history of the Kennedy administration in relation to Europe, but before we do, I think it might help to know the true genesis of JFK's personal attitudes towards Europe, so that we may better understand his eventual role in the history of the early 1960s: culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis and his anti-Communist speech in Berlin in June 1963, as …

The Press And Politics: A Comprehensive Examination, Heather Long

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article is based on interviews and research on the press and politicians, whose relationship is shown to be extremely controversial. Views held by members of the press, who see themselves as dutiful to their readers, are radically different from those held by politicians, who see reporters as money-hungry thieves who do not stop short of invasion of privacy for a story. The views of scholars — who attempt to make sense of the relationship — are different from both. The author attempts to amalgamate these views, assess the picture of the institutional relationship as it truly exists, and discover …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Four years ago, in the 1988 Summer/Fall issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy, we wrote,

"[The two] presidential candidates, Michael Dukakis and George Bush, [proved] themselves extraordinarily adept time and again at not addressing any of the excruciatingly difficult choices a new administration will have to make. But the realities the new president will face cannot be indefinitely obscured. The prosperity we enjoy, the unparalleled splurge in consumption during the 1980s, has been fueled by borrowing against the future. Although this observation is not especially new — and repetition has robbed it of urgency — what …

Voting Policy And Voter Participation: The Legacy Of The 1980s, Alex Willingham

Trotter Review

It has been widely recognized, at least since the Selma march during the civil rights movement, that the interests of black citizens and other minorities are directly connected to their capacity to participate in the political process and to public policies that protect that option. The clear message of the Selma demonstration was that, for a people constrained by a broad range of oppressive racist structures, voting is a basic resource for protecting all other rights. Further, it was clear that those who control power will restrict access to the ballot as their main line of defense.

Vote Dilution Research: Methods Of Analysis, Sheila Ards, Marjorie Lewis

Trotter Review

Why have issues which disproportionately affect African Americans not been brought to the policy forefront and given attention properly so that effective solutions can be found? Because of their roles as controllers of the government's budget, politicians and other policy makers decide which problems will be addressed. It is important, therefore, that African Americans elect political candidates of their choice. In the past, African Americans largely were outside the arena of public policy setting. Thus, solutions to problems which disproportionately affected African Americans were not pursued.

Race And Presidential Politics '92: The Challenge To Go Another Way, May Louie

Trotter Review

At presidential election time in 1992, America is once again looking at limited political options for national leadership. The Republican party platform is its most conservative ever. The Democratic party ticket is dominated by southern Dixiecrats. And we who have marched and organized, and risked and sacrificed much for racial equality and political empowerment, must now match our sense of foreboding with our determination to meet the challenge before us. Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 nation-shaking, agenda-setting presidential campaigns took us to places we had never been before and gave us a glimpse at the possibility of racial and economic …

A Moral Appeal To President George Bush, Jesse Jackson

Trotter Review

The following is the text of a letter written by Reverend Jesse Jackson to President George Bush dated May 1, 1991, as a plea for statehood for the District of Columbia, where 650,000 citizens are politically disenfranchised.

Black Women And The American Political System, Dorothy A. Clark

Trotter Review

Black women and politics—it is an association rarely made by the American electorate. As a group, black women have never been prominent players in the nation's political arena. In a system of decision making and power holding designed and dominated by white men, black women are an alien group in the formal political process. Their participation in that process has been limited—indeed often blocked—by a hierarchical system of race, gender, and class oppression that relegates black women to the lowest rungs of the political power ladder.

Ron Daniels: Profile Of A Presidential Candidate, Harold Horton

Trotter Review

The mass media has said very little about it, but Ron Daniels, an African American, is a presidential candidate. In 1988, Daniels was the southern regional coordinator and deputy campaign manager for Jesse Jackson's campaign. Daniels, a veteran social and political activist as well as former director of the National Rainbow Coalition, declared his candidacy for president at a news conference October 14, 1991.

From 1974 to 1980, Daniels served as president of the National Black Political Assembly and in 1980, he was the chairperson of the founding convention of the National Black Independent Political Party. Daniels was the convener …

A Historic Moment: Black Voters And The 1992 Presidential Race, Clarence Lusane

Trotter Review

November 2, 1991, may well be remembered as a watershed date in the unique and quixotic 1992 presidential race. On that day, stating that he would "not seek the nomination for the Democratic Party," Jesse Jackson backed out of the presidential campaign spotlight and started a chain reaction that has put the black vote in perhaps its least influential position since before 1984.

Extremely low black voter turnout was one of the most significant trends of the 1992 primaries. In the Democratic contests, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton won an impressive percentage of black votes, about 70 percent. However, those votes …

Introduction, James Jennings

Trotter Review

This special issue of the Trotter Review is devoted to a broad range of topics related to race, power, and voting. Although voting is a critically important political tool for black America, the vote does not necessarily guarantee that a group will enjoy power in society. At the same time that we seek greater rates of voter registration and turnout at all levels of the electoral process, we must also continue to struggle towards an agenda that delivers power to the black community.

The issue opens with an explanation of why statehood for Washington, D.C., should be a key item …

Massachusetts At The Crossroads, Richard E. Ring

New England Journal of Public Policy

Massachusetts is at a critical juncture in its care for homeless individuals. In the face of a charged political climate and with a governor bent on the "downsizing" and "privatization" of government services, decisions are being made that are of major importance to the welfare of homeless individuals in this state. Based on the choices of the state administration, Massachusetts can either solve its homelessness problem in the near future or relegate its homeless population to a lifetime spent on the streets or in shelters. In comparison to other states, Massachusetts has been relatively successful in caring for homeless people. …

Framing And Claiming The Homelessness Problem, David A. Rochefort, Roger W. Cobb

New England Journal of Public Policy

Despite a recent upsurge of interest in the issue, homelessness is a problem of long standing in American society. This article traces how several forces catalyzed the problem's re-entrance onto the political agenda in the 1980s. It then reviews the ongoing debate over homelessness causes and cures as a struggle for problem ownership that has complicated the choices of public policymakers. The final section examines various descriptive attributes that figure into the dispute over how to define homelessness and influence the nature of the public policy response to it.

Thoughts On Black Conservativism: A Review Essay, Martin Kilson

Trotter Review

In Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby, Stephen L. Carter, an Afro-American law professor at Yale University, has written a wide-ranging book on affirmative action policy. Like numerous other books on the subject, Carter covers the issues of its legitimacy as policy, white opposition, impact on black mobility, and contradictions faced by universities in administering affirmative action. Carter also offers a new area of discussion — namely, the evolving division among Afro-Americans regarding affirmative action, allocating six of eleven chapters to facets of this issue. Carter uses his own experiences to frame these discussions — a mode of discourse …

Beyond The Party-Group Continuum: Massachusetts Interest Groups In The 1980s, John C. Berg

New England Journal of Public Policy

Studies in the 1960s determined that Massachusetts had strong parties and weak interest groups. In the 1970s and 1980s, as the Republican Party shrank, party competition declined, conflict with the Democratic Party grew, and interest groups gained more importance — and probably will remain important despite the Republican gains of 1990. However, group conflict and citizen mobilization, including increased use of the initiative and referendum, create a situation of interest-centered conflict rather than interest-group dominance as traditionally conceived. This article, based on a 1987 survey of state legislators and legislative aides, plus a summary of recent Massachusetts political history, assesses …

Touched By Fire: Readings In Time Of War, Shaun O'Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

In "Touched by Fire: Readings in Times of War," Shaun O'Connell draws us into the eerie atmosphere that pulled this country into itself in the late fall and early winter, when thoughts of war provoked hard questions and when, for a time, doubt became the stuff of eloquence.

The works discussed in this article include: Pledging Allegiance: The Last Campaign of the Cold War, by Sidney Blumenthal; Millie's Book, as dictated to Barbara Bush; An American Life, by Ronald Reagan; The Civil War: An Illustrated History, by Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns; …

The Vision Thing, Shaun O'Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

In "The Vision Thing," Shaun O'Connell reviews a number of books whose subject matter is not merely the presidential election of 1988, but the impact of image politics in the age of the thirty-second sound bite. He quotes Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death: "Just as the television commercial empties itself of authentic product information so that it can do its psychological work of [pseudotherapy], image politics empties itself of authentic political sustenance for the same reason."

The works discussed in this article include: All by Myself: The Unmaking of a Presidential Campaign, by Christine M. Black …

The Presidential Primary: A Faulty Process, Douglas A. Fraser, Irving Bluestone

New England Journal of Public Policy

The system of presidential primary elections has in effect created a nonsystem for selecting party candidates for the highest office in the nation. Personality has become the substitute for program content, and campaign spending coupled with the influence of the media counts for more than the candidates' experience, knowledge, expertise, administrative ability, and attachment to the policies and programs of their respective political party. In large measure the current presidential primary system has failed in its objective to advance the democratic process within the political parties while undermining the effectiveness of the parties and the importance of activists, the party …

The Nowhere Man: When The "Miracle" Turned To Mush, David Nyhan

New England Journal of Public Policy

He didn 't steal money, go to jail, become embroiled in a personal scandal, or appoint a pack of thieves to high office, as other Massachusetts politicians have on occasion. But his fall was as dramatic as if he had done any or all of the above. From winning reelection in 1986 with 69 percent ofthe vote, then capturing the Democrats' presidential nomination, his fortunes sank like a stone.

Michael Stanley Dukakis, the stoic son of Greek immigrants, became a figure of ridicule in his third term. Thanks to the regional economy's sharp recession and the lingering effects of the …

Jfk: The Education Of A President, Nigel Hamilton

New England Journal of Public Policy

What goes into the making of a president? To what extent are the mind and character of the American commander in chief determined by his background, his family — and his education? This article represents a transcript of two lectures Nigel Hamilton presented in the spring and fall of 1989 at the Massachusetts State Archives. They were derived from the preliminary sketches for the author's full-scale biography of John F. Kennedy, to be published by Houghton Mifflin in 1992 on the anniversary of the birth of the thirty-fifth president.

On Being A Republican In Massachusetts: Notes Of A Party Chairman, Andrew Natsios

New England Journal of Public Policy

In the 1970s the Democratic and Republican national and state parties initiated efforts at party renewal in order to reverse their declining institutional power. Between 1980 and 1987 the Massachusetts Republican Party undertook a renewal effort modeled after that of the Republican National Committee under William Brock. This model emphasized the provision to candidates and to the grassroots party organization of campaign sendees such as literature design, polling, direct mail fund-raising, telephone banks, and campaign schools. The Massachusetts Republican Party concentrated these services to candidates for the state legislature, achieving the largest net gain in seats since 1962. Campaign technology …