Book Reviews : Usual Politics: A Critique and Some Suggestions for an Alternative. By GEORGE D. BEAM (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970. Pp. x, 196. $3.95 paper. )

• Author: Mason Drukman
• Published date: 01 December 1971
• Date: 01 December 1971
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591297102400416
• Subject Matter: Articles

811

education.

Results

would

include

the

elimination

of

officially

defined

poverty

by

1975

and

a

national

health

insurance.

Large

budgetary

increases

would

aid

metro-

politan

development

and

provide

fiscal

relief

for

states

and

localities.

National

defense

and

assistance

would,

however,

be

cut

a

third

from

the

1971

level

by

1973

while

foreign

economic

assistance

would

be

increased.

Agricultural

crop

subsidies

are

eliminated

and

emphasis

placed

on

income

support.

Funding

for

cleaning

up

the

environment

stresses

research,

but

total

increases

in

this

area

are

small.

Among

the

taxes

which

will

have

to

be

increased

are

a

5

percent

income

tax

surcharge

on

individuals

and

a

3

percent

payroll

earnings

base

tax

on

corporations

to

pay

for

part

of

the

national

health

insurance

and

a

10

percent

surtax

on

corporations

and

income

taxes

in

1974

in

conjunction

with

tax

reforms.

Counterbudget,

if

read

widely,

will

offend

a

number

of

groups,

but

it

will

hopefully

encourage

debate

over

budgetary

priorities

and

their

implementation.

Lockhard’s

book

differs

from

the

preceding

two

in

that

it

is

designed

as

an

introduction

to

American

government.

It

describes

how

governmental

institutions

set

the

nation’s

perverted

priorities,

e.g.,

people

going

hungry

while

wealthy

farmers

are

paid

not

to

produce

food,

the

health

and

safety

of

miners

sacrificed

for

economic

advantage

in

the

fuel

market.

Lockhard

critically

analyzes

political

parties,

while

concomitantly

presenting

detailed

evidence

of

national

problems

such

as

racism

and

the

Vietnam

war.

The

disadvantaged

are

shown

to

be

invisible,

neglected,

and

possessing

little

political

power.

Lockhard

does

not

call

for

sweeping

structural

reforms, but

emphasizes

persuasion

as

the

route

to

obtaining

better

policies.

He

urges

publicizing

the

inhuman

and

dangerous

perverted

priorities

that

exist

as

well

as

showing

that

it is

economically

feasible

to

handle

social

problems

and

that

public

authority

is

not

to

be

feared.

Lockhard

presents

his

material

so

convincingly

that

readers

inundated

by

perverted

policies

and

callous

institutions

could

pessimistically

drop

out

instead

of

reordering

priorities.

Detailed

examples

of

successful

change

emphasizing

methods

could

have

been

presented.

The

defeat

of

the

tobacco

lobby,

for

example,

consigned

to

a

footnote

might

have

been

explained.

The

scarcity

of

such

material

in

political

science

literature

does

not

make

this

an

easy

task.

University

of

Minnesota-Duluth

CRAIG

GRAU

Usual

Politics:

A

Critique

and

Some

Suggestions

for

an

Alternative.

By

GEORGE

D.

BEAM

(New

York:

Holt,

Rinehart

and

Winston,

1970.

Pp.

x,

196.

$3.95

paper. )

The

title

of

Beam’s

book

ought

to

be:

Orthodox

Political

Analysis:

Or,

What

Is

Wrong

With

American

Political

Science,

Why,

and

What

Might

Be

Done

About

It.

The

title,

Usual

Politics,

alludes

to

what

Beam

is

really

interested

in

but

does

not

write

about:

the

fact

that

politics

as

usual

cannot

deal

with

the

innumer-

able

crises

faced

by

contemporary

America;

that

the

United

States,

with

all

of

its