American Business and Public Policy by Draper, Theodore;

Short description:

American Business and Public Policy is a study of the politics of foreign trade

Long 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.

Table of Contents:

Introduction; I: The Setting; 1: Foreign-Trade Policy prior to 1934 1; 2: The New Republicanism and Renewal 1953; 3: The Randall Report; 4: Renewal 1954; 5: Renewal 1955 and Since; 6: Public Attitudes on Foreign Trade; II: Businessmen’s Attitudes and Communication on Foreign-Trade Policy; 7: Introduction to Part II; 8: Attitudes of American Business Leaders 1954–1955; 9: The Roots of Conviction—Self-Interest and Ideology; 10: Channels of Information; 11: Communications about Foreign-Trade Policy; 12: Communicating with Congress; 13: Businessmen’S Attitudes and Communication—A Summary; III: Eight Communities; 14: Introduction to Part III; 15: Detroit: Hotbed of Free Traders; 16: Delaware: Where the Elephant Takes Care Not to Dance among the Chickens; 17: Wall Street: The Sleeping Giant; 18: New Anglia; 19: Four Inactive Communities; 20: Lessons of the Community Studies; IV: The Pressure Groups; 21: Dramatis Personae; 22: Quasiunanimity—Premise of Action; 23: Further Difficulties of the Pressure Groups; 24: Pressure Group or Service Bureau?; 25: Organizing Communications—Two Protectionist Examples; 26: The CNTP—Spokesman Spokesman for Reciprocal Trade; 27: The Ladies of the League; 28: The Pressure Groups—a Summary; V: The Congressional Process; 29: The Job of the Congressman; 30: Some Areas of Initiative; 31: Congress as a Social System; 32: Communications—Pressure, Influence, or Education?; 33: Conflict of Roles; 34: The Congressional Process—a Summary; VI: Conclusions; 35: Conclusions