Theda Skocpol

Boomerang

Health Care Reform and the Turn against Government

How did the debate on health reform turn into the most concerted attack on government in recent American history?

In this incisive account, a prize-winning social scientist offers deep insights into the changing terrain of U.S. politics and public policy. Because of far-reaching changes in the Reagan era, Theda Skocpol shows, the Clinton Health Security bill became a perfect foil for antigovernment mobilization. Thus its defeat provides a unique window into the new political landscape.

"As readable as it is insightful, Boomerang sketches the sources economic, institutional, political of President Clinton's dire defeat on health care reform in 1994, a pivotal precursor of that year's congressional elections. . . . A compelling story. . . . Required reading for president-watchers and policy designers alike, indeed for anyone concerned about American institutions."--Richard E. Neustadt

"Remarkably thorough and perceptive. . . . [A] major contribution."--Alan Brinkley, Columbia University, author of The End of Reform

Theda Skocpol is professor of government and sociology at Harvard University.

"Painfully honest and insightful. [Boomerang] forces progressives to ask fundamental questions about their theoretical assumptions. . . ."--Stanley B. Greenberg, author of Middle Class Dreams

"A grim yet instructive diagnosis of what ails the American body politic."--Robert Schmuhl, Philadelphia Inquirer

1997 / paperback / ISBN 0-393-31572-X / Photographs, drawings / 256 pages / current affairs/political science