This book examines how political elites used high levels of voter ignorance to create a new sort of regulatory state with lasting implications for American politics. Focusing on the expansion of bureaucratic authority in late-nineteenth-century America, the book's archival research examines electoral politics, the Treasury Department's control over monetary policy, and the Interstate Commerce Commission's regulation of railroads to examine how conservative politicians created a new type of bureaucratic state to insulate policy decisions from popular control.
Keywords: political elites, regulatory state, electoral politics, monetary policy, railroads, bureaucratic state, bureaucratic authority, Interstate Commerce Commission
Print publication date: 2015 | Print ISBN-13: 9780300198782 |
Published to Yale Scholarship Online: May 2016 | DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300198782.001.0001 |