The Politics of Social Policy Reform in the United States: The Clinton and the W. Bush Presidencies Reconsidered

Daniel Béland and Alex Waddan

Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers from McMaster University

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine what key reform attempts during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies reveal about the wider possibilities for social policy change in the United States. Most particularly, why were Presidents Clinton and Bush able to achieve their goals in some policy realms but so badly defeated in others? As argued, institutional variation from one policy area to another helps answer this question. On the one hand, strong institutional obstacles in the fields of Social Security and health insurance largely explain the defeat of the most ambitious social policy proposal put forward by each president. On the other hand, successful reforms occurred in a comparatively favourable institutional context. Yet, the analysis also suggests that paying close attention to the strategic ideas of political actors as they interact with existing institutions and policy legacies is necessary to fully understand the politics of social policy reform.

Keywords: social policy; Medicare; Social Security; welfare; institutions; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H55 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2008-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias and nep-pol
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mcm:sedapp:232

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