Hijacking the Agenda

About this book

"Wealthy interests exercise influence over the policy agenda of the United States not just by gaining access or influencing narrow domains, but by affecting which issues are treated as problems worthy of policymakers' attention and which are not. Through structural and kinetic power - the sway of one's position in the economic structure and the deployment of resources in the policy process - the wealthy shape the overall agenda and the policy outcomes that follow. Through this theoretical framework, the authors illuminate a core challenge facing democracy as practiced in the United States, where economic elites hold disproportionate influence in the policy process and frequently hijack the policy agenda"--