 Jeffrey M. Berry - American Politics, Political Behavior
The New Liberalism: The Rising Power of Citizen Groups
(The first two pages of this book are reprinted below. This does
not incorporate the publisher's copyediting, so please do not quote
from this text).
One of the truisms about American politics is that liberalism is
dead. Labor is weak; the welfare state has collapsed; conservatives
dominated Congress even before the Republicans formally took control
in 1995; and Bill Clinton could win re-election in 1996 only by
running on Republican issues. Liberals are seen as a sad lot, still
trying to figure out what happened. They almost have a nostalgic
quality about them, sort of like the bell bottoms stuck in the back of
the closet.
But liberalism is not dead. Indeed, it's thriving.
Liberalism has, however, changed its stripes. The dominant strain of
American liberalism today is postmaterialism--concerns of culture,
status, life style, morality, and rights. What it is in retreat is
traditional liberalism, concerned with issues of economic equality and
promoted primarily by unions and groups sympathetic to the poor.
Although postmaterialism is advocated by groups on both the right and
the left, liberal groups have been most successful in getting
government to respond to their priorities. Citizen lobbying groups are
the moving force behind modern liberalism. The Liberals' Agenda
This argument about contemporary liberalism is not based on
revisionist history, a deconstruction of what the terms liberal and
conservative actually mean, a novel interpretation of current social
policy, or a new research methodology for studying American politics.
Instead it rests on a rather conventional analysis of the
congressional agenda. I looked at what Congress actually did in three
separate sessions and recorded basic information about the types of
policies they were acting on and which kinds of interest groups were
involved. In this regard it is important to emphasize that this study
is restricted to policymaking in the Congress. Thus, the argument
about liberal postmaterialism is an argument only about how it has
fared there. Research on the federal courts or on state-level politics
or on public opinion might reveal different patterns; the mix of
issues and advocacy may be significantly different outside of
Congress. Still, Congress is at the very center of American national
politics, and the policies it considers and acts upon shape the lives
of Americans in direct and fundamental ways. The major findings
can be stated succinctly: First, since the early 1960s the
agenda of American politics has shifted from a preoccupation with
issues that are exclusively material in orientation to a focus on
issues that involve quality-of-life concerns. In simple terms, policy
decisions in Congress have moved from questions on how to increase the
economic pie to questions about how to balance economic growth with
the need to enhance the environment, protect consumers, or improve
personal well-being. The change has been dramatic and enduring, and
the rise of postmaterialism has profound consequences for whose
interests are represented in the legislative process. Second, it is
citizen groups that have been the primary political force behind this
change. More specifically, it is primarily citizen groups of the left
that caused this change. Despite the prominence of conservative
citizen groups and their success in attracting members, they have been
marginal players in the legislative process. (By citizen groups I mean
lobbying organizations that mobilize members, donors, or activists
around interests other than their vocation or profession).
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