In The New Politics of Public Policy, Marc Landy and Martin Levin bring together a group of leading experts to challenge the view of the Bush-Reagan era as one characterised by policy gridlock. They demonstrate that there were a surprising number of impressive policy outcomes and that many were not in the least "conservative." The number and scope of these innovations, they argue, refute the conventional wisdom that the policy process in those years was biased against change, dominated by obstructionary interests, and characterised by incrementalism. The authors examine the most important arenas of modem domestic policy reform - health, entitlements, environment, and taxation as well as the changes that have taken place in the key policy-making institutions of Congress, the executive branch, the states, and the courts. They provide in-depth investigations of the 1986 and 1990 immigration Reforrn Acts, the 1986 Tax Reform Act, Aid to Children with Special Needs, the Superfund, and the Clean Air Act. They show how changes in Congressional structure affect the representation of interests, deliberation, and the resolution of conflict and how these effects, in turn, influence the passage of legislation. They explain how the replacement of on-budget funding by mandates requiring others to pay has made it easier to enact expensive laws and regulations. Most importantly, they demonstrate that a new politics of public policy has emerged - one characterised by a competition for novel ideas, a lowering of the legitimacy barrier regarding governmental intervention, and a broader understanding of rights.

In Active Duty: Public Administration as Democratic Statesmanship, a distinguished group of contributors examines the role of the American civil service under the Constitution. The common concern that unites the otherwise diverse approaches of the authors is the conception of public administration as a particular form of political activity. The contributors relate administrative issues to the broader questions of political life, such as political judgment and responsibility, the Constitution and constitutionalism, and the promotion of human liberty and the common good. They aim to encourage the administrator to become a democratic statesman. Present and prospective American civil servants, as well as political scientists and political philosophers, will find this book of interest.

Founded in 1978, the goal of the Working Women's Forum is to improve living conditions of working women in India. Its struggle against poverty and insufficient social protection includes programs for women's health and welfare, and credits and cooperatives to enhance the economic participation of women. This organization has developed into a platform for empowerment, giving Indian women both voice and capacity to realize their economic and social goals. The Working Women's Forum has, for over a decade and a half, mobilized the poorest, and the most marginalized sector of the work force in India. Poor women workers face constraints and oppression by their barriers of caste, class, and gender that further marginalize their position both at home and at work place. Caste affiliation restricts their mobility and formulates cultural norms for their social behavior. Class membership limits their access to productive resources and makes them invisible in the economic spheres. The gender roles relegate women to a low productive occupation near the household, minimizing their economic role as only an extension of their domestic chores. In detailing the history and growth of the Working Women's Forum in India, Structuring a Movement and Spreading It On shows how women workers are undermined as workers, defined as housewives, and forced to a status of invisibility, living in subsistence and marginal survival conditions. Their vital contribution to the productive process and thereby the nation's economy is unrecognized. Therefore, the nation's planning process never makes the requisite allocations for the growth and development of this section. It is this segment of the work force that have beenorganized by the Working Women's Forum through credit cooperatives and collective spirit of unionism that has brought about a sea change in the lives of the poorest women. Today, thousands of women have been released from the clutches of perpetual indebtedness and dependency on moneylenders and other middlemen. Women have thus been able to save, create assets, and improve the quality of living, thus ensuring growth with equity.