A real Hamiltonian would keep this spending even with GDP growth, but that did not happen between '92 and '00. Nor was it even proposed. McCain isn't quite there either.
As far as I can see, Kristol's idea of national greatness is focused on foreign policy, and on eschewing libertarian economic extremes that Bush II is reflecting.
mbs
>
> Bill Kristol does reflect this, since he is promoting what he calls a
strong
> Hamiltonian state is support of "National Greatness" conservativism. He
> sees McCain as the new embodiment of this trend.
>
> -- Nathan Newman
==============
-When haven't the US elites been Hamiltonian/Listian in their economic
-development approaches? Public pays for the good stuff and then it's
-appropriated via the patronage system and becomes the free market.
-Socialism of risk, privatization of gain. From canals and railroads to
-computers the Hamiltonian thread reveals itself...
Because conservatives in the US since World War II have had the advantages of a Hamilitonian state via the Military-Industrial complex while able to maintain the rhetoric of free markets except for "national security" exceptions - the exception that swallowed the rule for a range of business needs.
With the end of the Cold War, some conservatives bought their own rhetoric and promoted the whole Gingrich version of market mania- calling for abolition of half the Cabinet departments and actually trying to dismantle the Hamiltonian benefits for business in some cases. Parts of capital reacted negatively both to the excesses and the results that played out in certain sectors, both the results in the breakdown of certain economic sectors and in the political reactions embodied by Seattle.
The successful economic management of Clinton-Blairite "Third Way" politics just further assurred those parts of capital that they could get the benefits of Hamiltonian governance without the egalitarian excesses they feared from the center-left. The tradeoff of some redistribution was worth the stability and economic coordination gained through center-left governance. Obviously not a universal sentiment across capital, but note the endorsement this week by THE ECONOMIST of Tony Blair over the Tories.
-- Nathan Newman