This text details the policy subsystems - links among members of Congress, interest groups, programme beneficiaries, federal and subnational government agencies - that blanket the American political landscape. The authors have constructed a new data base detailing federal outlays to Congressional districts for each federal program, and use it to examine four myths about the impact of policy subsystems on American government and democratic practice. These include the myth that policy subsystems are a major contributor to the federal deficit; that once created, federal programs grow inexorably...