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"The most illuminating book on contemporary American politics to be published in over a decade." This is one of the best accounts of how today's Washington Republicans exercise power. “Hacker and Pierson shrewdly assess the new structures of political power in our country and the success of conservative Republicans in mobilizing resources and framing political choices. This book is innovative, it's important, and it will open many eyes. It is the book Karl Rove would wish he had written – if he were on the other side.” "Why and how domestic politics has shifted so far right in recent years is the story of Off Center -- and it isn't a pretty one....Executed with a deft balance of grace and rigor ... the authors' analysis of the country's current predicament is a tour de force." "[O]ne very serious, smart work of political science." "In this book, two political science professors from Yale and Berkeley examine ascendant far-right Republicans and offer a sobering analysis of their strategies, many of which, the authors argue, have weakened the ordinary voter's power to ensure that American politics remains on center....Closely-argued and very readable, the book never sinks under the weight of its details... The authors believe this deep-pocketed elite will control the Republican Party for come time to come. If that is true, this book should become required reading for anyone interested in the triumph of the neocons or worried about where they are leading America." "[T]he Bush administration and radical right-wingers in Congress continue to gut programs supported by most Americans while lining the pockets of their corporate cronies without ever facing repercussions on Election Day. How do they do it? That's the question political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson examine in their excellent new book, Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy." "I've been reading "OFF CENTER," an important new book by Jacob Hacker and “Political scientists don’t often write books that take sides in political arguments.... It’s hard to combine the attention to detail and to careful argument that academics are supposed to have with a passionate concern for the results of the fight. OFF CENTER pulls off both. On the one hand, it is very clearly the work of people who have thought carefully and hard about how politics works....But on the other, it doesn’t pull its punches. Hacker and Pierson have no compunctions in arguing that the current Republican hegemony is dangerous, and needs to be rolled back.” "Outdated political science clichés go flying like bad guys in a Kung Fu movie in this revelatory new book. American politics is supposed to be prone to stalemate. Extremists are supposed to be relegated to the dustbin of history. So how come policies so radically at odds with what the American people say they want have been locked in for the next generation? Hacker and Pierson brilliantly nail the case: the Republicans have rigged the system. OFF CENTER provides the missing pieces from What's the Matter with Kansas?: How they committed the crime, and where they hid the bodies. Pundits: read it and heed it.” "It is hard to read Off Center without concluding that the capacity of political elites to manipulate public perception has come to overwhelm the ability of the average overworked, infotainment-saturated citizen to understand what is being done in his or her name...[O]ne of the more original and thought-provoking takes on American politics in recent years." "The authors do a fine job of documenting the extent to which the GOP, rather than using its political power to create policies, uses its policies to advance its political agenda....Hacker and Pierson point out just how totally the aims of governance have been subsumed in the aims of furthering GOP hegemony." "The disconnect between the Bush administration and voters is illuminated in this intriguing investigation, which concludes that the electorate has not become more conservative, but the President and Congress have....The authors say that correcting this political imbalance will require a revitalized labor movement, a larger middle class, and public demand for accountability from elected officials. Strongly recommended for public libraries." "OFF CENTER proves two points beyond reasonable dispute. The first is that the current paralysis and polarization of the American political system is not some split-the-difference, everyone’s-to-blame phenomenon. Instead, its worst aspects are direct results of Republican extremist tactics over the last decade. The second is that the consequences are bad for nearly everyone in the country, except for the very richest people and corporations. The book makes an important case convincingly.” "OFF CENTER is an important and provocative new book. It will capture imaginations and inspire argument both in academic circles and among the educated public. This book will be widely read—and vociferously debated—in colleges and universities and in the media. A home run.” "Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson announce something that everyone will—and should—pay attention to. They have done something in this book that political scientists rarely do: they dissect the broad meaning of current political dynamics. By applying political science concepts to current events in very accessible ways, they help lay readers to get the big picture of contemporary American politics." "OFF CENTER offers a penetrating and provocative commentary on the current state of party politics in the United States. Hacker and Pierson lend their considerable analytical gifts to one of the most important developments of our time — the emergence of a militantly conservative Republican Party that shapes the political agenda, controls the major governing institutions, and is poised to recast the welfare state in its own image. Not everyone will agree with the arguments of this book, yet no serious student of American politics will dare ignore the profound questions it raises about vitality of American democracy." |
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