The Great Society and Its Legacy

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

Book One. Background

1. Themes and Premises

The Great Society in 1984: Relic or Reality? / Robert Wood 17

Is New Federalism the Wave of the Future? / William Schamabra 24

2. The Macroeconomic Context

The Evolution of Economic Policy / Barry Bosworth 32

Tax Reform from 1964 to 1984—A Brief Retrospective / Joseph Pechman 42

Book Two. Problems, Policies, Programs, and Evaluation

1. The Discovery of Poverty

Poverty in the United States / Paul Ylvisaker 51

War on Poverty: Assumptions, History, and Results / Bernard Gifford 60

2. The Programmatic Legacy

Did the Great Society and Subsequent Initiatives Work? / Sar Levitan and Clifford Johnson 73

Creating Jobs for Americans: From MDTA to Industrial Policy / Peter Edelman 91

Six Welfare Questions Still Searching for Answers / Henry Aaron 105

Random Reflections on the Great Society's Politics and Health Care Programs After Twenty Years / Wilbur Cohen 113

3. Restructuring the Urban Environment

Revitalizing the Cities: From Great Expectations to a New Realism / Marshall Kaplan 121

Downtown Shopping Malls and the New Public-Private Strategy / Bernard Frieden and Lynne Sagalyn 130

4. Use and Misuse of Information

Observations on the Role of the Media in Covering the War on Poverty / Ian Menzies 148

The Role of the Media in Shaping Public Policy: The Myth of Power and the Power of Myth / Charles Green 152

Social Science and the Great Society / Richard Nathan 163

5. The Impact on the Structure of Governance

Fiscal Federalism in the 1980s: Dismantling or Rationalizing the Great Society / Robert Reischauer 179

The Nature and Systemic Impact of "Creative Federalism" / David Walker 197

The Great Society and the Growth of "Juridicial Federalism"—Protecting Civil Rights and Welfare / David Rosenbloom 208

Conclusion—Great Society, Past, Present, and Possible Future 216

Notes 229

Index 247

Contributors 253