Barnes & Burke on How Policy Shapes Politics Regarding Compensation
Jeb Barnes (USC-Political Science) and Thomas Burke (Wellesley-Political Science) have published How Policy Shapes Politics: Rights, Courts, Litigation, and the Struggle Over Injury Compensation
How Policy Shapes Politics analyzes the politics of injury compensation in the United States, a field in which judicialized policies operate side-by-side with bureaucratized social insurance programs. The authors conclude that the choice between judicialized and bureaucratized injury compensation policies can have powerful political consequences.
Litigation, by dividing social interests into victims and villains, winners and losers, generates a fractious, chaotic politics in which even seeming allies-business and professional groups on one side, injured victims on the other-can become divided amongst themselves. By contrast, social insurance programs that compensate for injury bring social interests together, narrowing the scope of conflict and over time producing a more technocratic politics.
By comparing the political trajectories of different types of policies, some more court-centered, others less so, the authors probe the consequences of arguably one of the most significant developments in post-World War II government, the increasingly prominent role of courts, litigation, and legal rights in politics.
By comparing the political trajectories of different types of policies, some more court-centered, others less so, the authors probe the consequences of arguably one of the most significant developments in post-World War II government, the increasingly prominent role of courts, litigation, and legal rights in politics.
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