The rationalization of democracy: Liberal,elitist, and corporatist conceptions of democracy∗

Charles Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950–1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1984).

On Bureaucratic Discourse: A Radical Feminist Analysis of the Role of Public Administration in Late Capitalism

Jean Baudrillard, In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities . . . or the End of the Social and Other Essays, trans, by Paul Foss, Paul Patton and John Johnston (New York: Semiotext(e), 1983), 123 pp.

Jean Baudrillard, Simulations, trans. by Paul Foss, Paul Patton and Philip Beitchman (New York: Semiotext(e), 1983), 159 pp.

Omar Cabezas, Fire from the Mountain: The Making of a Sandinista, translated by Kathleen Weaver with a foreword by Carlos Fuentes and an afterword by Walter LaFeber (Crown Publishers, Inc.: New York, 1985), pp. 233.     

Ideas and Policy Change

Peter Hall's 1993 article came at the same time as a parallel body of literature was developing, some building explicitly, some only implicitly, on similar ideas. I review some literature on policy communities, ideas, and the nature of policy change before exploring the statistical distribution of budget changes at three levels of aggregation. The similarity of these results suggests that a single process may be at work rather than different processes for first‐, second‐, and third‐order change, as Hall's original formulation has it. As Hall suggests, these processes typically generate only marginal adjustments but occasionally create fundamental change. The degree of discredit to the status quo may be an important unexplored variable in explaining the ability of policy reformers to enact marginal, substantial, or fundamental policy changes. In sum, this article shows the similarities and mutual value of Hall's approach with others that would appear to be starkly contrasting.