How Policy Shapes Politics

Rights, Courts, Litigation, and the Struggle Over Injury Compensation

Jeb E. Barnes and Thomas F. Burke

Synthesizes and critiques many scattered writings on the consequences of growing 'judicialization,' 'juridification.' 'legalization.' 'juristocracy' etc.
Challenges much of the conventional wisdom about the political costs of using litigation, including many prominent claims made by political scientists, journalists and law professors about how litigation affects politics
Introduces a 'comparative developmental' approach to analyzing claims about the effects of litigation on politics and show why this approach improves on the methods researchers in this field typically use
Uses original data drawn from 40 years of congressional hearings on injury compensation policies and three in-depth histories long-running political struggles over injury compensation

How Policy Shapes Politics

Rights, Courts, Litigation, and the Struggle Over Injury Compensation

Jeb E. Barnes and Thomas F. Burke

Description

The 'global rise of judicial powe' has been called one of the most significant developments in late twentieth and early twenty-first century politics. In this book, Jeb Barnes and Thomas F. Burke examine the political consequences of the growing reliance on courts and litigation in public policy by analyzing the field of injury compensation, in which judicialized and bureaucratized programs operate side-by-side. Their study mixes quantitative data on a wide range of injury compensation policies with three in-depth case historical studies in which they trace political struggles over Social Security Disability Insurance, asbestos injury litigation, and the obscure but fascinating controversy over injuries purportedly caused by vaccines. They conclude that while social insurance programs that compensate for injury tend to bring social interests together, the use of litigation divides interests between victims and villains, winners and losers and so creates a comparatively fractious, chaotic politics.

How Policy Shapes Politics

Rights, Courts, Litigation, and the Struggle Over Injury Compensation

Jeb E. Barnes and Thomas F. Burke

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Congressional Hearings and the Politics of Adversarial and Bureaucratic Legalism
Chapter 3. Social Security Disability Insurance: The Politics of Bureaucratic Legalism
Chapter 4. Asbestos Injury Compensation: The Politics of Adversarial Legalism and Layered Policies
Chapter 5. Vaccine Injury Compensation: The Politics of Shifting Policies
Chapter 6. Conclusion
Appendix I: Hearing Data
Appendix II: Model of Hearing Participation
Appendix III: Content Analysis of Interest Group Positions on the FAIR Act in the Media
Works Cited
Cases Cited

How Policy Shapes Politics

Rights, Courts, Litigation, and the Struggle Over Injury Compensation

Jeb E. Barnes and Thomas F. Burke

Author Information

Jeb E. Barnes, Associate Professor of Political Science, USC, and Thomas F. Burke, Professor of Political Science, Wellesley

Jeb Barnes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Southern California. A former litigator with a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School and PHd from UC Berkeley, he has written extensively on the intersection between law, politics and public policy in the United States. Tom Burke is Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard and at the University of California-Berkeley, and a research fellow at the Brookings Institution and with the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Program. He is the co-author with Lief Carter of the 8th edition of Reason in Law (2010) and the author of Lawyers, Lawsuits and Legal Rights (2002).

How Policy Shapes Politics

Rights, Courts, Litigation, and the Struggle Over Injury Compensation

Jeb E. Barnes and Thomas F. Burke

Reviews and Awards

"The contribution of the book is a map of policy complexity with a focus on two engaging "policy designs," adversarial and bureaucratic legalism. In this it advances the tradition of law and society scholarship by linking scholarship from the broader and more sophisticated study of law to the field through three lively cases." - J. Brigham, University of Massachusetts, CHOICE

"Brilliant! How Policy Shapes Politics is a landmark. It shows that how we compensate for injuries or illness is a fateful policy choice. One path leads to sharp political conflict with big winners and losers, the other to stable, reasoned and reasonable distribution of costs and benefits. Richly based in evidence and elegantly composed, this study is a must-read for scholars of law, tort litigation, and how public policies- including judicial decisions- shape politics." - Charles R. Epp, Professor, School of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Kansas

"I know of no book that does a better job explaining how 'adversarial legalism' shapes public policy. Using well-crafted case studies and carefully designed quantitative analysis, Barnes and Burke help us understand the different patterns of politics created by bureaucratic legalism and adversarial legalism. The clarity and depth of their case studies make this a great book for both undergraduate courses and graduate seminars." - R. Shep Melnick, Thomas P. O'Neill Professor of American Politics, Boston College