How did the consumer impulse of the 1960s and early '70s succumb to
the anti-regulatory fervor of recent years? "What had we
accomplished? Where had we gone wrong?" As staff director of the
Senate Commerce Committee, Pertschuk launched one after another
consumer-protection law; as the Carter-appointed chairman of the
Federal Trade Commission ("the fulfillment of an adult fantasy"),
he had to fight to keep the agency alive. Here he offers a wry and
rousing appraisal of that dramatic reversal - and of the prospects
for consumerism today. His major point, articulated and
demonstrated, is an amalgam of the thinking of James Q. Wilson (The
Politics of Regulation) and Charles E. Lindblom (Politics and
Markets): under certain conditions, public-interest entrepreneurs
can mobilize latent sentiment for remedial, business-curbing
legislation (Wilson) but business influence on government
decision-making will ultimately prevail (Lindblum). So we see, in
the prosperous, anti-Establishment mid-'60s, zealous young
Committee staffers evoke public outrage over flammable children's
clothing (pointed out to Comm. chairman Magnuson by a
pediatrician-constituent) and channel that outrage into a demand
for Congress "to strengthen the flammable fabrics law." We see the
moment, in the faltering mid-'70s, at which business took fright
("You touched the money nerve," said a Chamber of Commerce rep);
mobilized in turn (the PACs); and, given new respectability by the
free-enterprise economists, found "a public voice." And later we
see the crestfallen FTC reaction to being tagged - in the
Washington Post! - the "National Nanny" (because of its proposed
constraints on children's TV advertising) and how the depleted,
chastened public-interest entrepreneurs regrouped. Early and late,
Pertschuk shrewdly and appreciatively weighs the impact of Ralph
Nader - as "an Old Testament prophet" or
Sherman-marching-through-Georgia. A buoyant and pithy book on one
of the world's less glittering subjects. (Kirkus Reviews)
"Michael Pertschuk brings an insider's insight to the tumultuous
years of the sixties and seventies, when the consumer protection
bells rang from Washington throughout the land. An engrossing story
of corporate versus consumer battles over health, safety, and the
economic rights of Americans. The future of consumer justice is
given wisdom by this eyewitness account." (Ralph Nadar). "This is a
book that should be ready by everyone with a stake in regulation of
business by bureaucrats in Washington. Whether you agree or
disagree with his point of view - and I often disagree - you can
always count on Mike Pertschuk to be provocative, stimulating, and
certainly controversial." (Howard H. Bell, President, American
Advertising Federation). "There is a lot of businessmen [sic] to
disagree with in this book. It's troublesome and disturbing - not
the least because Mike Pertschuk is a tough adversary. But any
businessman [sic] - or citizen - who wants to know exactly how the
politics of regulation work would be well advised to read this book
- and be prepared." (George Koch, President and Chief Executive
Officer Grocery Manufacturers of America). "Must reading for
everyone who is a student of the consumer movement, past, present,
and future, and its interaction with the government, media, private
sector, et al. It is a superb 'How To' manual on tactics, and
presents a rare inside look at how things really get done in that
place called Washington, D.C." (Calvin Pond, Vice President, Public
Affairs Division Safeway Stores, Inc.). "Pertschuk's book is
outstanding; it is a beautiful blend of personal, firsthand
observation and political and policy analysis." (Aaron Wildavsky,
University of California, Berkeley). "A rare picture of how
government works...sprightly, lucid, and appealing ...remarkably
candid and honest, not only in revealing the labyrinthian
interplays of politics but in disclosing the author's own attitudes
and motives...An extraordinary document." (Charles Lindblom, Yale
University). "There is no more controversial figure in Washington
than Michael Pertschuk..." (Senator John Danforth).
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