Concluding points on spending policies, yesterday's lecture:

• Let's look at President Clinton's 1998 proposed budget by category:
  • http://uspolitics.org/instructors/Figures-graphs/figures18/fig18.3.gif
  • And now let's see where the money goes, Figure 18.4
• The great rise in payments to individuals suggests that the US government has moved toward a welfare state.
• But as Slomp notes, Europeans are more devoted to government spending on social policies that Americans are
  • Social security and social services are generally more extensive than they are in the U.S.
  • "welfare" is not a dirty word in European politics
  • The state's role in most of Europe is to equalize the standard of living of its citizens.
  • Thus promoting social equality tends to trump promoting personal freedom in European political cultures.
    
• The highly unequal distribution of wealth in American society can be understood from the perspective of two models of democracy.
  • Scholars argue that tax and spending policies are dominated by pluralist politics which favor well funded and well organized interest groups.
  • Public opinion studies show that Americans are unlikely to seek redistribution of income through the tax system as prescribed by the majoritarian principles of democracy.

The Challenge of Democracy: the next edition

• Our new subtitle will reflect our the theme of the 2001 edition:
• Through 6 editions, the subtitle has been, Government in America
• For the 7th edition, the subtitle will become, American Politics in a Global Environment
• We will show how American politics affect other countries
• We will also show how politics in other countries affects politics in the U.S.