Agenda Politics and the Transformation of the American Political System

There is little doubt that the American political system experienced a great transformation during the last third of the 20th Century. Some of the indicators that scholars, journalists, practitioners, and citizens highlight include the decline of trust in government, the partisan polarization in congress and in the public, and the vast expansion of the interest group system. The alleged causes of this transformation are as varied as the symptoms, including the partisan realignment of the South, the increase in income inequality, increases in the diversity of the population, and changes in the mass media.

But all major accounts of the transformation fail to assess the role of the vast expansion of the policy agenda during the period, and its consequent role in the thickening and broadening of government. Here I examine the vast US agenda expansion, which began in the late 1950s and peaked in 1978 (I can pinpoint thus because of data assembled by the US Policy Agendas Project). I assess the causes of this expansion, and then show that the agenda expansion was a major factor in the transformation of American politics. One cannot assess current politics without a deep appreciation of past public policies.

Bryan D. Jones
JJ “Jake” Pickle Chair in Congressional Studies
Director, US Policy Agendas Project
University of Texas at Austin