This book investigates examples of social policy in Britain and the United States that conflict with liberal democratic ideals. It examines the use of eugenic arguments in the 1920s and 1930s, the use of work camps in the 1930s, and the introduction of work-for-welfare programs since the 1980s. The author argues that government accommodation of illiberal policies are a paradox of a liberal democratic framework.

This collection examines the foreign and domestic policies of President George W Bush's administration. The analysis begins with an account of how highly polarized--in terms of public opinion and electoral patterns--this presidency has proved to be. This is followed by chapters on the use of unilateral executive powers and pre-rogative powers. Because the policy choices of the Bush presidency have had such fundamental effects both in domestic policy and in US foreign policy, three contributors then address the processes of decision making especially in respect to the war against Iraq. How the...

Why have both Great Britain and the United States been unable to create effective training and work programs for the unemployed? Desmond King contends that the answer lies in the liberal political origins of these programs. Integrating extensive, previously untapped archival and documentary materials with an analysis of the sources of political support for work-welfare programs, King shows that policymakers in both Great Britain and the United States have tried to achieve conflicting goals through these programs.
The goal of work-welfare policy in both countries has been to provide...

"In this landmark book, Desmond King reveals and corrects a glaring gap at the epicenter of studies of racial inequality and political development in the United States: their blindness to the pivotal role of the state in making race. With historical precision and analytic rigor, he demonstrates how, for seven decades following the legal affirmation of the doctrine 'separate and equal' in 1896, the federal government both bolstered and expanded racial separation, in effect nationalizing the pattern of black subordination elaborated by Southern segregationists in the aftermath of abolition. The...

The 2010 election serves as a bookend to one of the remarkable political periods in recent U.S. history. Amidst a profound economic crisis, Americans elected an African American to the presidency and massive Democratic majorities to Congress. Beginning in 2009, the President and Congress put forward a sweeping agenda to both address the economic crisis and enact progressive policies that liberals had been advocating for decades. Within a year and a half, they would pass health care reform and financial reform alongside a stimulus package of nearly a trillion dollars. Democrats also rescued...