[lbo-talk] Re: Thomas Ferguson's Golden Rule: criticism? compliments?

[Tim Francis-Wright]

Michael Hoover wrote:
> On 7/11/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>  > On Jul 11, 2006, at 1:52 PM, Jerry Monaco wrote:
>>> Doug or anyone else on this list,
>>> I was wondering if anyone has read _Golden Rule : The Investment
>>> Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political
>>> Systems_  by Thomas Ferguson.
>>> If so what do you think of it?  Any criticisms?
> 
>> I haven't read the book, but I've read a lot of Ferguson's other
>> stuff, and am familiar with his argument. I think he underestimates
>> the degree to which big givers follow the polls; in his model, the
>> givers lead the electorate. There was a big shift in campaign
>> contribs to the Republicans *after* the 1994 sweep, and previously
>> Democratic houses like Goldman Sachs went Republican in the early
>> Bush years (i.e., not in 1998 or 1999).
>  > Doug

 >
> ferguson's book was almost completely ignored by poli sci folks, most
> certainly the mainstream garden variety...
> 
> thesis shouldn't be disagreeable to most lbo-sters, elite abiliity to
> dominate policy outcomes through "control" of/influence over the
> electoral process...
> 
> essentially a rational choice argument: candidates for office must
> seek favor from some portion of the corporate sector...
> 

For what it's worth, Ferguson and Rogers's _Right Turn: The Decline of 
the Democrats and the Future of American Politics_, published in 1986, 
has a different spin on this thesis.  They portray a Democratic party 
that turned rightward in the late 1970s ahead of any rightward movement 
by the electorate.  Perhaps they overplay the investment theory of 
politics a bit much.  But it is clear from the last 30 years or so that 
the American right wing believes in this theory and practices it often.

(_Right Turn_ got assigned in at least one big political science grad 
program in the early 1990s as a contrarian view to the idea that the 
1980s contained a political realignment amongst the electorate.)

--tim f-w