Stanley B. Greenberg - Böcker

This work analyzes the causes and effects of rebellion among America's middle class, who have become increasingly disillusioned with official Washington. The text also outlines the challenges facing the two main parties if they are to win back middle-class voters.

In an era of widespread and unsettling change in workplaces, families, and communities, most Americans yearn for a government that will take their side. The contributors to this bold and visionary book argue that America is ready for a progressive politics with substance and bite. They contend that by embarking on a popular progressive course, the Democratic Party can become the moral voice—and practical partner—of all American families striving for a better life.This provocative book is a dialogue among Stanley B. Greenberg, Theda Skocpol, and other well-known thinkers. The contributors reject conservative answers to America’s most pressing problems—fraying social ties, hard-pressed family life, sluggish economic growth, and widening gaps between the life circumstances of the most privileged and of everyone else. They discuss a renewal of the nation’s social contract, suggest how to revitalize American democracy (not only by reducing the role of big money, but also by reconnecting people to politics), and explore how popular Democrats can fashion broad electoral alliances in the years to come. The Democratic party must undertake a new mission to champion the daily needs of Americans who work for a living, the authors maintain. In this period of change, America needs a government that does more, not less. By opting for a popular progressive course, Democrats can realign national debates and inspire a broad new electoral majority.Contributors:Alan BrinkleyMarc CaplanMichael C. DawsonJeff FauxMarshall GanzStanley B. GreenbergIra KatznelsonTheodore R. MarmorJerry L. MashawKaren M. PagetMiles S. RapoportMichael J. SandelTheda SkocpolPaul StarrMargaret WeirWilliam Julius Wilson

Legitimating the Illegitimate: State, Markets, and Resistance in South Africa offers a profound examination of the apartheid regime’s efforts to sustain power and privilege amidst mounting internal contradictions and external pressures. Focusing on the intersections of state control, labor dynamics, and market systems, the book unpacks the paradoxical attempts by South African leaders to frame their racially oppressive system as legitimate. Through detailed research and interviews with government and labor officials, it reveals the state as a fractured and inefficient apparatus, undermined by its inability to fully control African resistance or enforce racial domination within a rapidly changing political economy.This incisive analysis challenges earlier portrayals of the apartheid state as a unified, effective tool of racial capitalism. Instead, it illuminates the regime’s vulnerabilities, from the tensions inherent in its labor control mechanisms to the ideological shifts employed to mask its waning grip on power. With a critical lens on both state and market dynamics, Legitimating the Illegitimate highlights the transformative impact of African resistance and offers a nuanced understanding of the interplay between coercion, ideology, and systemic change. This book is essential for anyone seeking to grasp the complexities of state power, economic systems, and social movements in deeply divided societies.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1987.