[lbo-talk] Baucus to Meet with Single-Payer Advocates

[Alan Rudy]

I'm with shag... who I think is saying, at least in part, that the
structure, content and opportunties legislators and bureaucrats feel they
have depends mightily on whether there is sustained, mutually reinforcing
noise being made by organized groups in and across society... its not like
the judges appointed by Eisenhower and Nixon started off as "liberals", it
seems to me, in order to sustain much legitimacy at all in the second half
of the sixties and most of the seventies these men and women couldn't baldly
side against the tenor of the times (even if the tenor was mildly liberal
rather than rabidly so, as is so often presented to us in the MSM.
Wojtek, have you read any of the many many critiques of Skocpal's
hyperstatism?
As I recall, its been a while, Fred Block and Bill Domhoff are among the
most vociferous left Weberians...
Her strong statements, as I recall, almost always took it on the logical and
empirical chin in my readings circa 20 years ago.
O'Connor's Fiscal Crisis of the State presents an implicit critique, even if
it preceded most of Skocpal's most famous material.

*********************************************************
Alan P. Rudy

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 10:16 PM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com>wrote:


> At 01:24 PM 6/4/2009, Dennis Claxton wrote:
>
>> At 08:15 AM 6/4/2009, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>>
>>  [WS:]  I do not there is a shred of historical evidence that social
>>> programs - in this country and elsewhere - were enacted as a result of
>>> social movement, let alone street protest. In most cases, they were brought
>>> by reformers in the government itself.
>>>
>>
>> What about the eight hour day?  It wasn't a "social program" I guess, but
>> it was a fundamental and long fought for sea-change.  Saying it was brought
>> by government reform is like saying children are brought by obstetricians.
>>
>
>
> the civil rights movement is one good example...
>
> SNIP
>
> oh! and feminist social movement had a big effect on affirmative action
> policies....


> SNIP
>
> there was also the poor people's movement though the results are ambiguous
> there.
>
> also, the way that births are handled, completely different because of the
> feminist movement. that change happened in the short span of a decade. not
> government policy, no, but it's worth noting since you don't always have to
> go after government social policies to make small improvements in people's
> daily lives.
>