Pinstripe Patronage: Political Favoritism from the Clubhouse to the White House and Beyond

ISBN-13: 9781594515927 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 288 str.

Martin Tolchin; Susan J. Tolchin

Opis

Political patronage - awarding discretionary favors in exchange for political support - is alive and well in 21st century America. This book examines the little understood patronage system, showing how it is used by 'pinstripe' elites to subvert the democratic process. 'Pinstripe patronage' thrives on the billions of dollars distributed by government for the privatisation of public services. Martin and Susan Tolchin introduce us to government grants specified for the use of an individual, corporation, or community and 'hybrid agencies', with high salaries for top executives and board members. In return for this corporate welfare pinstipe partons giving politicians the ever-increasing funds needed to conduct their political campaigns. As budget cuts begin to bite, the authors argue that it is time to clamp down on the corrupt practice of pinstripe patronage.

Spis treści

1. The Only Way to Run a Government 2. Patronage Politics at the Grass Roots 3. Statehouse Patronage 4. Congress: The Mother Lode 5. Justice on eBay 6. Presidential Patronage 7. Pinstripe Patronage: Outsourcing Government 8. Harbinger of Change

O autorze

Martin Tolchin capped a forty-year career at The New York Times, where he reported on Congress and politics, by becoming founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Hill newspaper. He also was the founding senior publisher and editor of Politico. He is now a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Susan J. Tolchin is Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and the author of The Angry American: How Voter Rage is Changing the Nation (Westview Press, 1996 and 1998), and Women in the U.S. Congress, among several other books. Together the Tolchins have written seven previous books, most recently, A World Ignited: How Apostles of Ethnic, Religious, and Racial Hatred Torch the Globe (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006) and Glass Houses: Congressional Ethics and the Politics of Venom (Westview Press, 2009-new in paperback).