Julian E. Zelizer

Thirty years after the 'Watergate Babies' promised to end corruption in Washington, Julian Zelizer offers a major history of the demise of the committee era Congress and the rise of the contemporary legislative branch. Based on research in over 100 archival collections, this 2004 book tackles one of the most enduring political challenges in America: barring a wholesale evolution, how can the institutions that compose representative democracy be improved so as best to fulfill the promises of the Constitution? While popular accounts suggest that major scandals or legislation can transform how government works, Zelizer shows that reform is messy, slow, multidimensional, and involves many institutions. This moment of reform in the 1970s revolved around a coalition that had worked for decades, the slow reconfiguration of the relationship between institutions, shifts in the national culture, and the ability of reformers to take advantage of scandal and elections.

Thirty years after the ‘Watergate Babies’ promised to end corruption in Washington, Julian Zelizer offers the first major history of the demise of the committee era Congress and the rise of the contemporary legislative branch. Based on research in over 100 archival collections, this book tackles one of the most enduring political challenges in America: barring a wholesale evolution, how can the institutions that compose representative democracy be improved so as best to fulfill the promises of the Constitution? While popular accounts suggest that major scandals or legislation can transform how government works, Zelizer shows that reform is messy, slow, multidimensional, and involves many institutions. This moment of reform in the 1970s revolved around a coalition that had worked for decades, the slow reconfiguration of the relationship between institutions, shifts in the national culture, and the ability of reformers to take advantage of scandal and elections.

Taxing America offers a new interpretation of the American state between 1945 and 1975 by tracing the career of Wilbur D. Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1958 to 1974. Blending methodological insights from history, political science, and sociology, Julian Zelizer provides one of the first comparative histories of income taxation, Social Security, and Medicare in this study of the crucial role Mills played in negotiating between the tax policy community and Congress. Taxing America lays out four innovative arguments about the expansion of the state during the postwar period; Congress played a crucial role in the institutionalization of the state after World War II, policy communities helped encourage policymaking, taxation was central to postwar liberalism and its domestic agenda, and a fragile alliance between influential fiscal conservatives and the state was instrumental in expanding support of the policies of the tax community.

Taxing America offers a new interpretation of the American state between 1945 and 1975 by tracing the career of Wilbur D. Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1958 to 1974. Blending methodological insights from history, political science, and sociology, Julian Zelizer provides one of the first comparative histories of income taxation, Social Security, and Medicare in this study of the crucial role Mills played in negotiating between the tax policy community and Congress. Taxing America lays out four innovative arguments about the expansion of the state during the postwar period; Congress played a crucial role in the institutionalization of the state after World War II, policy communities helped encourage policymaking, taxation was central to postwar liberalism and its domestic agenda, and a fragile alliance between influential fiscal conservatives and the state was instrumental in expanding support of the policies of the tax community.