ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I discuss the politics underlying the major egalitarian reforms that occurred in the 1930s and 1960s. Much of the work I have done over the past decades in collaboration with Richard Cloward has been devoted to analyzing these episodes. 1 We emphasized the important role of disruptive protests in precipitating twentieth-century waves of democratic reform. This chapter will build on this earlier analysis. First, I will summarize our argument and briefly indicate the kind of evidence to which we pointed. Second, I turn to a review of some of the voluminous academic literature that also purports to explain policy breakthroughs that occurred between the 1930s and 1960s, resulting in the creation of what is sometimes called the New Deal/Great Society order. The pride of place that Cloward and I give to protest movements puts us at odds with most of this academic work which pays rather scant attention to protest movements. I will argue that important insights notwithstanding, the marginalization of protest in this literature has produced interpretations of the political dynamics of these periods that are sorely incomplete.
