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6. Reorganizing the Activist State: Conservatives, Commissions, and the Politics of Federalism, 1947–1996

Author

Rocco, Philip Bartholomew

Subjects
Political science, Public policy, History, American Political Development, Conservatism, Federalism, Institutional Change, Intergovernmental Relations, United States
Abstract

This study examines the origins of conservative efforts to reform the “activist American state” in the postwar period by reorganizing fiscal and administrative relationships between federal, state, and local governments. Existing scholarship suggests that conservatives’ efforts to grant sub-national governments greater decision-making authority over national policies were either an obvious extension of challenges to the New Deal or a reaction to liberal policies in the 1960s. Drawing on a combination of archival sources, secondary literature, and quantitative data, this study shows, in contrast, that conservative challenges to the activist state in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were shaped by institutional investments made in the early 1950s. Indeed, long before the Great Society, conservative policy entrepreneurs constructed what I call generative institutions that gradually reconfigured the political context in which debates over federalism occurred. These institutions reframed the critique of centralized government as a dilemma of proper administration and management, built broader political coalitions with state and local officials, and experimented with new policy alternatives that would become the basis of later reforms. The institutions conservatives built were commissions for studying and deliberating about problems of “intergovernmental relations.” Intergovernmental commissions helped conservatives to recalibrate their engagement with a growing federal government in three ways. First, in the absence of wider support for reform, these commissions refocused conservatives’ arguments from ideological or constitutional claims into administrative ones by marshaling the power of existing executive-branch institutions to produce and publicize novel information about that branch’s own problems, helping to investigate and publicize concrete policy failures and tensions that agencies did not wish to expose. Second, the commissions’ bipartisan, intergovernmental composition provided conservatives in government with a single forum for organizational brokerage––the ability to build policy consensus with a diverse range of stakeholders, namely, state and local elected officials. As a result, the commissions’ research products came to be valued by a broader audience than conservative reformers alone. Third, over time, commissions accumulated strategic knowledge about intergovernmental relations, which allowed conservative policy entrepreneurs to criticize major categorical grant programs and recombine older policy proposals into viable new reforms. The result was not the retrenchment of the activist state, as some conservative policy entrepreneurs hoped, but a set of reforms that empowered state governments to play a more important role in shaping the outcome of federal policies.In showing how intergovernmental commissions gave conservatives the capacity to reorganize authority within the activist state, this study also makes a larger claim about patterns of institutional change within studies of American Political Development (APD). While APD is concerned with explaining “durable shifts in governing authority,” recent historical-institutional scholarship suggests that major shifts may emerge not from systemic shocks but from gradual processes of drift, conversion, and layering; the recombination of ideas and interests by skilled entrepreneurs; or the formation of policy networks. These studies examine how entrepreneurial actors pursue direct policy changes, yet they fail to take into account how new institutions can help to subsidize the costs of entrepreneurship. Similarly, while scholarship on policy agendas focuses on the importance of venue shifting, it says little about what distinguishes venues that catalyze change from those that do not. Generative institutions, I argue, can pave the way for major reforms by routinizing the production of policy information, building consensus, and developing policy expertise.

Published
2015

9. Trump's birthright citizenship proposal isn't just an electoral stunt

Author

Musgrave, Paul and Rocco, Philip

Subjects
Birthright citizenship -- Laws, regulations and rules -- Political aspects, President of the United States -- Social policy -- Political activity, Government regulation, General interest, News, opinion and commentary, United States Constitution. 14th Amendment
Abstract

Byline: Paul Musgrave and Philip Rocco President Donald Trump thinks that he can end birthright citizenship in the United States by executive order: 'It was always told to me that [...]

Published
2018

10. How Did Fiscal Scorekeepers, like the CBO, Become So Powerful in Congress?

Author

Rocco, Philip

Abstract

The article focuses on the power and influence of fiscal scorekeepers, particularly the Congressional Budget Office (CBO),in determining the cost estimates of legislation in Congress. It explores the historical context of the CBO's creation, its role as a neutral arbiter of the federal budget, and the increasing reliance on its cost estimates in policymaking. It also discusses how political actors, both Democrats and Republicans, use or dismiss the CBO's scores to advance their policy agendas.

Published
2021

11. Despite Democrats’ takeover of the House, don’t expect Republicans to give up on undoing Obamacare

Author

Haeder, Simon F., Rocco, Philip, Haeder, Simon F., and Rocco, Philip

Abstract

In the lead up to last week’s midterm elections, polls consistently showed that healthcare was on the forefront of many Americans’ minds. With the Democratic Party now in control of the US House of Representatives, Republican efforts to repeal President Obama’s signature healthcare reform, Obamacare, are likely to be significantly curtailed. But that doesn’t mean they will end completely, argue Simon F. Haeder and Philip Rocco. Drawing on evidence from their research on previous Republican actions to repeal Obamacare, they write that the influence of activists within their party means that the GOP are likely to continue their efforts to impede the full operation of the Affordable Care Act at the state level, through the courts, and via executive actions.

12. Trump’s fight over covid-19 numbers shows how the hollowing out of expertise can be dangerous for democracy

Author

Rocco, Philip and Rocco, Philip

Abstract

As in any emergency or disaster, institutional agreement over the statistics of the Covid-19 pandemic is incredibly important. During the crisis, President Trump has questioned federally requested research around the spread of the pandemic and the amount of equipment needed to tackle it. Philip Rocco writes on how Trump’s efforts to undermine a common understanding of the numbers around the crisis can be a threat to democracy itself.

13. The fragmentation of federal expertise has enabled the politicisation of Covid-19 numbers in the USA

Author

Rocco, Philip and Rocco, Philip

Abstract

As in any emergency or disaster, institutional agreement over the statistics of the Covid-19 pandemic is incredibly important. During the crisis, President Trump has questioned federally requested research around the spread of the pandemic and the amount of equipment needed to tackle it. Philip Rocco writes on how Trump's efforts to undermine a common understanding of ... Continued

14. Trump's fight over Covid-19 numbers shows how the hollowing out of expertise can be dangerous for American democracy

Author

Rocco, Philip and Rocco, Philip

Abstract

As in any emergency or disaster, institutional agreement over the statistics of the Covid-19 pandemic is incredibly important. During the crisis, President Trump has questioned federally requested research around the spread of the pandemic and the amount of equipment needed to tackle it. Philip Rocco writes on how Trump’s efforts to undermine a common understanding of the numbers around the crisis can be a threat to democracy itself.

15. Despite very different beginnings, China and America now have a great deal in common in how social policy provision is organized

Author

Béland, Daniel, Rocco, Philip, Shi, Shih-Jiunn, Waddan, Alex, Béland, Daniel, Rocco, Philip, Shi, Shih-Jiunn, and Waddan, Alex

Abstract

At the beginning of the latter half of the 20th century, policy approaches in China and the US to providing social benefits, such as education and health care, were very different. China's model was one of centralized control, while in the US a state-based approach to implementing social policies was favored. In new research, Daniel Béland, Philip Rocco, Shih-Jiunn Shi and Alex Waddan compare how the provision of social policy in China and the US has evolved. They find that both countries have converged to a point where the central government formulates and (in the US case, pays for) social policy while states and provinces play a major role in how those policies are implemented.

16. With their Obamacare replacement, Republicans are jumping blindfolded through the policy window

Author

Rocco, Philip and Rocco, Philip

Abstract

Earlier this month, House Republicans released their proposed bill to repeal and replace Obamacare – the American Health Care Act (AHCA). With estimates that the bill may cause 24 million people to lose health insurance coverage gained under Obamacare, Philip Rocco writes that the leadership of the Republican Party is now faced with asking its members to vote for a bill which was written with the Party’s core supporters in mind, but which may end up hurting them the most.

18. Partisan warfare, fragmented institutions, and market challenges continue to shape the rollout of Obamacare

Author

Béland, Daniel, Rocco, Philip, Waddan, Alex, Béland, Daniel, Rocco, Philip, and Waddan, Alex

Abstract

Though passed by Congress in 2010, the Affordable Care Act, also known as ‘Obamacare’ only came into place towards the end of 2013. The initial months of the program have been characterized by a litany of IT failures for the healthcare.gov website, and concern over gaps in health insurance coverage. Daniel Béland, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan write that while the debate over Obamacare is no longer about its repeal, its supporters and opponents still face battles over how it is instituted. They argue that Republican states are using their legislative capacity to thwart the law, which may give Democrats the opportunity to place blame on them for coverage gaps.

19. Technology-focused critiques of Obamacare are distracting from the political sabotage of the program by congressional Republicans

Author

Rocco, Philip and Rocco, Philip

Abstract

With the recent end of the U.S. government shutdown, political attention has moved on to the glitches encountered in the rollout of health insurance exchanges at the state and federal level, as part of the Affordable Care Act. While many commentators have damned the Department of Health and Human Services for the ‘failed’ and ‘disastrous’ launch of the exchanges, Philip Rocco argues that these difficulties must be seen in the context of the inherent complexity of the system, the high public expectations for it, and the continuing efforts by congressional Republicans, business organizations, and the Tea Party to under-fund and undermine the program.

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