Solving the Riddle of Tax Reform: Party Competition and the Politics of Ideas
Observers of the American policy process have long been concerned by its seeming inability to respond to changing conditions and citizen demands in a timely and coherent manner. This concern gained prominence with James MacGregor Burns's warnings about "deadlock and drift" during the early 1960s.I More recently, continuing charges of "stalemate," "delay," and "gridlock" have given rise to serious proposals for constitutional modifications.2 The enactment of policies that pit the interest of the broad, unorganized public against those of concentrated, highly organized special interests is considered particularly difficult. Tax policy seemingly exemplifies this problem, as the tax writing committees of congress have presided over a massive proliferation of credits, deductions, and exemptions thought to benefit such narrow interests at the expense of