DISMANTLING AMERICA: The Rush to Deregulate

by Susan J. & Martin Tolchin Tolchin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1983

The Tolchins have a bracing, unequivocal commitment to regulation: ""the connective tissue, the price we pay for an industrialized society."" They note that, according to the polls, most of us support socially-protective regulation--particularly of health, safety, and the environment--and that we even have our doubts about the deregulation of telecommunications, banking, and the airlines. ""Why such a disparity, then, between what the public wants and what the public allows its leaders to do?"" Susan Tolchin is a professor of public administration at George Washington U., Martin Tolchin is the New York Times' chief congressional correspondent, and they have set themselves not so much to decry, or even to document the ""current deregulatory frenzy,"" as to interpret it--so that, when the inevitable reversal comes, we will be ready to regulate more wisely. First, the background: business support for protective economic regulation, business opposition to protective social regulation, the successful campaign to make ""excessive regulation"" an all-purpose scapegoat for business ills. Also cited with concern, however, are the legislative oversight process (congressional power to veto selected regulations) and the adversarial framework--leading to frequent stalemates--in which the social regulators have operated. Then, in illustrative detail: presidential intervention during the Carter and Reagan administrations; the activities of Reagan's appointees (who ""have the latitude only to deregulate"")--with special attention to the EPA/hazardous waste flap; the cotton-dust case and ""the spurious standards of cost-benefit analysis""; the political embroilments (and congressional axing) of the FTC; the incestuous history of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the consequences (the airlines, asbestos, alcoholic beverages) of business deregulation. Along with Revolt Against Regulation (1982), by the FTC's Michael Pertschuk: a knowledgeable update--and more than Pertschuk (whom the Tolchins lightly fault), across-the-board analytical.

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION