The Politics of Social Policy
In 1994 the Foundation approved the formation of a working group of political scientists interested in probing what they perceived as growing citizen disenchantment with the nation's political system. Specifically they have been interested in studying how the nation's two major political parties have each attempted to create a new political coalition organized around different ideological responses to the belief that government was not meeting the needs of its citizens. The specific focus of their study has been the social policy agenda of the Clinton administration and the partisan struggles that have ensued as a Democratic President--the first in twelve years--and a Republican majority in Congress--the first in over forty years--have attempted to enact major policy reforms.