American Business and Public Policy
Subtitle: the politics of foreign trade
By: Theodore Draper
Edition: Second edition.
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 499
ISBN-13: 9781351315647
Subjects: Commercial policy; Pressure groups; Case studies; Lobbying; Industrial policy; Groupes de pression; Études de cas; Politique industrielle
Description: "American Business and Public Policy is a study of the politics of foreign trade. It challenges fifty years of writ-ing on pressure politics. It includes nine hundred interviews with heads of corporations, including 166 of the 200 largest corporations; another 500 interviews with congressmen, lob-byists, journalists, and opinion leaders; and eight community studies making this book the most intensive survey in print of the politics of business. It is a realistic behavioral examination of a major type of economic decision. The authors introduce their study with a history of the tariff as a political issue in American politics and a history of American tariff legislation in the years from Europe's trade recovery under the Marshall Plan to the challenge of the Common Market. They examine in succession the changing attitudes of the general public and the political actions of the business community, the lobbies, and Congress. American Business and Public Policy is a contribution to social theory in several of its branches. It is a contribution to understanding the business community, to the social psychol-ogy of communication and attitude change, to the study of political behavior in foreign policy. American Business and Public Policy is at once a study of a classic issue in American politics?the tariff; decision-making, particularly the relation of economic to social-psycho-logical theories of behavior; business communication?what businessmen read about world affairs, what effect foreign travel has on them, where they turn for political advice, and how they seek political help; pressure politics, lobbying, and the Congressional process."--Provided by publisher
Table of contents: title: Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Prologue; Preface; Table of Contents; Introduction-The Study and Its Methods; Objectives; Methods; Part I · The Setting; Chapter 1 · Foreign-Trade Policy Prior to 1934; The War of 1812 and Its Aftermath; The Civil War and the Tariff; A Tariff for Protection, Not Revenue; The Changing Role of the Tariff; The Arguments for Protection and Free Trade; Chapter 2 · The New Republicanism and Renewal 1953; Renewal 1953; Chapter 3 · The Randall Report; Chapter 4 · Renewal 1954; Chapter 5 · Renewal 1955 and Since; Developments Since 1955.; title: Chapter 6 · Public Attitudes on Foreign TradeWhat Was Public Opinion?; Trend of Opinion; Level of Interest; Stability of Opinion; What Was Opinion?-Summary; Who Holds Which Opinions?; Educational Level; Economic Level; Party Affiliation; Political Activity; Whose Opinion?-Summary; Why do They Think That Way?; Isolationism vs. Internationalism; Arguments; Public Attitudes-A Summary; Part II · Businessmen'S Attitudes and Communication on Foreign-Trade Policy; Chapter 7 · Introduction to Part II; Chapter 8 · Attitudes of American Business Leaders, 1954-1955; Trends in Opinion to 1954.; title: Trends in Opinion, 1954-1955The "True State" of Opinion; Salience of the Issue; Chapter 9 · The Roots of Conviction-Self-Interest and Ideology; The Notion of Self-Interest; Tariff Attitudes and Internationalism; The Ideological Initiative; Chinks in the Liberal Traders' Ideological Wall; Strengths and Vulnerabilities; Summary; Chapter 10 · Channels of Information; Reading Habits; Some Similarities and Differences in Reading Habits; Foreign Sources of Information; Sources of Information on the Reciprocal-Trade CONTROVERSY; Chapter 11 · Communications about Foreign-Trade Policy.; title: Talking about Tariffs and Foreign-Trade PolicyThe Genesis of Communications Activity-Interest and Attitude; Chapter 12 · Communicating with Congress; Who Wrote and Why?; The Role of Self-Interest; The Role of Attitudes; Interests and Attitudes Combined; The Role of Ideology; The Channels of Communication; The Supportive Environment; Summary; Chapter 13 · Businessmen's Attitudes and Communication-A Summary; Appendix to Part II · Large and Small Firms-The Varying Impact of Self-Interest; The Protective Environment-Self-Selection in Communication; Summary; Part III · Eight Communities.; title: Chapter 14 · Introduction to Part IIIChapter 15 · Detroit: Hotbed of Free Traders; Chapter 16 · Delaware: Where the Elephant Takes Care Not to Dance among the Chickens; The Corporate Setting; Monolithic DuPont?; Who Speaks for DuPont?; History of the Notion that DuPont Is Protectionist; Other Delaware Businesses; Rural Delaware; What the Congressmen Heard and Did not Hear; Conclusion; Chapter 17 · Wall Street: The Sleeping Giant; The Myth of Wall Street; The Organization Banker; Channels to the Outside World; Summary; Chapter 18 · New Anglia; Chapter 19 · Four Inactive Communities.