public agencies and private institutions
"CETA: Politics and Policy, 1973-1982."
University of Tennessee Press, 293 Communications Bldg., Knoxville, Term.
37996.272 pp. $24.95.
Authors: Grace A. Franklin and Randall B. Ripley
Few federal programs have been more controversial than the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). Charges of local waste, mud- die, and fraud plagued the program al- most from its inception in 1973.
Franklin and Ripley, Ohio State University political s...
A few things remain constant in every major national and interna- America-death, taxes, baseball, tional health group-including the and since 1950, widespread, often American Medical Association, the successful efforts by a passionate mi- American Dental Association, the nority to keep fluoride out of the U.S. Public Health Service, and the public drinking water. World Health Organization-and
Why has there been such recurring campaigned to keep fluoride out of popular resistance to a simple the...
Edward R.
Kantowicz, in Journal of ~olic~
AnalysisTax Reform and Management (Winter 1985),John Wi-ley & Sons, 605 Third Ave., New York,
N.Y. 10158.
Tax reform is one of the perennial crusades of American politics.
Yet, despite all the rhetoric on Capitol Hill, the U.S. tax code has swelled to more than 1,000 incomprehensible pages. Now that Presi- dent Reagan has decided to pursue the elusive goal of tax reform, it is worth pondering where his predecessor went wrong.
For four years, President...
introducing major tax, energy, and other packages at the same time. Worse, Kan- towicz argues, Carter ignored his own sound political instincts. As he wrote in his 1975 campaign autobiography, Why Not the Best? "At-tempts to reform systems of cash management, taxation, health, wel- fare . . . are doomed unless they are bold and comprehensive. With small and incremental changes, there is an intense focusing of effort to oppose the change."
"The Role of Gender in Recent Presiden- The...
Election Day.
In any event, Bolce says, the real news is "the widespread alienation of white males from the national Democratic party." Reagan won 60 percent of white males' votes in 1980 and 66 percent in 1984. Their bed- rock party loyalties also seem to be shifting. In 1976,22 percent called themselves Republicans; 34 percent Democrats. 1984, some 36 per- cent were Republicans and 30 percent Democrats. National Democrats, Bolce believes, have their work cut out for them.
"State...
PERIODICALS
POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
of a revival.
Their survey of 40 Republican and 30 Democratic state party chair- men suggests that the GOP is faring better. [Nevertheless, the Democrats hold 34 governorships, the Republicans only 16.1 More than half the Re- publican state party organizations report annual budgets above $500,000; the majority of their Democratic counterparts spend less than $250,000. All but a few of the chairmen say that their organizations re- tain full-time staff members,...
the can- didates and on "independent expenditures" noncampaign organizations.) A 1979 amendment permitted unlimited spending on grass roots activities by political parties. The result, unforeseen at the time, was a vast advantage for the Republicans, thanks to their fund- raising prowess. Ever since, Glen writes, both parties have been on guard against "hidden agendas" in reform proposals.
There is no shortage of reform ideas. But one that seems logical to some outside observers...
other means." Each major new weapons system-antiballistic missiles, multiple war-heads, the Strategic Defense Initiative-brings a new round of arms talks. Even when they "succeed," Draper writes, nuclear arsenals keep growing. Seeking "plain, simple, and sufficient" deterrence with a small number of nuclear weapons on each side is the only logical so- lution, in Draper's view. But until both sides decide they want it, he concludes, talks at Geneva are futile.
The Red Phone...
Don-Who Needs A ald Kagan, in The Public Interest (Winter 1985),20th & Northampton Sts., Easton,
Peace Institute? Pa. 18042.
Unnoticed amid all the legislation that Congress passed in its haste to adjourn last fall was a bill establishing a new United States Institute for Peace. The institute's mission: to subsidize research into the causes of war, to support public "peace education," and to train public offi- cials in "international peace and conflict resolution."
Kagan,...
human impulses-revenge, greed, wishful thinking-that can-not be measured statistics. The new Peace Institute, he predicts, will not just subsidize earnest academic thumb-twiddling but "will erode the forces of common sense, experience, and history that argue for a strong defense as a deterrent to war."
ICS, LABOR, & BUSINESS
'Do Large Deficits Produce High Inter- 'he Interest Rate est Rates?" by Paul Evans, in American Economic Review (Mar. 1985), 1313 21st Puzzle Ave. So.,...