The Policy State

A sterling example of political science at its best: analytically rigorous, historically informed, and targeted at questions of undeniable contemporary significance… Orren and Skowronek uncover a transformation that revolutionized American politics and now threatens to tear it apart. -- Timothy Shenk * New Republic *
Wherever you start out in our politics, this book will turn your sense of things sideways and make you rethink deeply held assumptions. It’s a model of what political science could be, but so rarely is. -- Yuval Levin * National Review *
A gripping narrative…opening up new avenues for reflection along methodological, conceptual, and normative lines. -- Bernardo Zacka * Contemporary Political Theory *
The Policy State shows us how the policy gears whir over time and how the policy regime has profoundly shifted the Constitutional frame of American governance. These changes—the irresistible spread of policy efforts—render policy-making more difficult, more transient, and more frustrating on every political side. A masterful, powerful, original, and important book! -- James A. Morone, Brown University
This book’s distinct contribution is to provide a unifying account of diverse legal developments in the areas of both rights and constitutional structure that together have led to the emergence of what the authors call the modern ‘policy state.’ -- Richard H. Pildes, New York University School of Law