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Over the past forty years, conservatives have mastered the art of pursuing policy change across the states, while similar liberal efforts have floundered. Using a diverse array of original evidence,
State Capture explains why and how conservatives developed cross-state political clout while progressives did not.
List of contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction
- PART I: The Evolution of ALEC: A Corporate-Conservative Anchor Across the States
- Chapter 1: "The Most Dangerously Effective Organization": A Smart ALEC is Born
- Chapter 2: Policy Plagiarism: A Window into ALEC's Reach Across the U.S. States
- Chapter 3: An Easy A with ALEC: ALEC's Appeal for State Legislators
- Chapter 4: "A Great Investment": ALEC's Appeal for Big Business
- · PART II: The Right-Wing Troika and its Foes
- Chapter 5: A Little Help from Their Friends: Introducing the Right-Wing Troika
- Chapter 6: Transforming the Nation One State at a Time: The Right-Wing Troika and State Policy
- Chapter 7: "Feisty Chihuahuas Versus a Big Gorilla": Why Left-Wing Efforts to Counter the Troika Have Floundered
- Conclusion: State Capture and American Democracy
- Technical Appendix
- Works Cited
About the author
Alexander Hertel-Fernandez is an Associate Professor in Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He is also the author of Politics at Work.
Summary
Over the past forty years, conservatives have mastered the art of pursuing policy change across the states, while similar liberal efforts have floundered. Using a diverse array of original evidence, State Capture explains why and how conservatives developed cross-state political clout while progressives did not.
Additional text
In this outstanding book, Alex Hertel-Fernandez systematically documents how the states, once celebrated as a diverse set of locally-grounded 'labratories of democracy,' are increasingly subject to capture by powerful and well coordinated national interest groups. The message of State Capture is compelling and troubling: more and more, major policy choices in states where Republicans gain power reflect the activites of narrow interests able to deploy political resources on a national scale rather than the concerns and preferences of local voters."- Paul Pierson, John Gross Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley, and co-author of Winner-Take-All Politics and American Amnesia
