A POPULIST MANIFESTO: The Making of a New Majority

by Jack & Jeff Greenfield Newfield ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 1972

Newfield and Greenfield are proposing both a political program and strategy to facilitate the development of what they call the new populist majority -- a ""coalition of self-interest"" comprising the younger urban middle class, have-not racial minorities, and progressive labor. Pegged on the historical American love affair with the idea of egalitarianism and the desire for sociocultural diversity (the two have proved incompatible, but never mind), their manifesto is a ""synthesis of many radical and some conservative ideas"" aimed at redistributing wealth and power through numerous socioeconomic reforms, e.g., provision of free medical services to all, reorganization of the criminal justice system, diversification of the broadcast media, break-up of large corporations, nationalization of major public utilities, decentralization of grassroots decision-making, democratization of the political selection process, and reduction of spending for national defense. Of course the title and analytical technique are out of Kevin Phillips' Emerging Republican Majority and the Scammon-Wattenberg rejoinder The Real Majority, but substantively this is much closer to James MacGregor Burns' Uncommon Sense (published last month -- 1971, p. 1234). Burns also postulates a populist majority but unlike the Newfield-Greenfield team he advocates more, not less, centralization of power (to be wielded -- hopefully -- by a liberal executive), and if possible these two books should be read and debated together. For after all the speculative dust about potential voter alignments settles, we find that both Burns and Newfield-Greenfield are really discussing revitalizing the now splintered New Deal amalgam which so effectively dominated American polity for a quarter of a century -- their only difference is over which New Deal.

Pub Date: March 6, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Praeger

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION