CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Butterfield II, Steven James |
|---|---|
| Title | Riding the Third Rail: The 2004/2005 Social Security Reform Proposals in the United States: institutionalism and new political theories |
| Summary | This paper examines the 2004/2005 proposed reforms to Social Security in the United States. Given the significant factors favoring a positive outcome for the policy proposal, why did it fail? The author uses a historical institutionalist and critical junctures approach to show that, while this could be termed a “near miss” critical juncture, institutionalized path-dependent constraints on actor actions ultimately doomed the policy. A synthesis of other research is undertaken to delineate a new theoretical construct that seeks to explain the relationship between political figures and their relationship with the voting public, and is termed “electoral gains theory.” A process tracing analysis of the specific case is used to reach conclusions about the political viability of entitlement or welfare reform in the United States and, by implication, other affluent democracies. |
| Supervisor | Kemmerling, Achim |
| Department | Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/butterfield_steven.pdf |
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