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- Title
Why Can't Americans See the State?
- Authors
Sheingate, Adam
- Abstract
This essay examines public-sector employment in order to grasp the distinctive character of the American state. Looked at comparatively, the American state is anything but small or weak. Rather, befitting a federal system, public authority in the United States is exercised largely through state and local government. What is distinctive about the American state is the concentration of public-sector employment in three areas: education, defense, and public safety. This pattern reflects a historical legacy of American state-building whereby the federal government frequently employed less visible, indirect forms of policy intervention while state and local government developed robust authority, particularly in matters that pertained to public and private morals. The result has been a set of institutions that hides or conceals public authority in various ways. Ultimately, the inability of Americans to see this state reinforces the very skepticism toward governmental authority that such a state-building strategy was meant to avoid.
- Subjects
UNITED States; PUBLIC sector; EMPLOYMENT of Americans; UNITED States economy, 2001-2009; UNITED States economic policy; ESSAYS; UNITED States politics &; government, 2001-2009
- Publication
Forum (2194-6183), 2009, Vol 7, Issue 4, p1
- ISSN
2194-6183
- Publication type
Essay