The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point

by Haynes Johnson

Book Overview

Drawing on unprecedented access to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich, Ted Kennedy, and over seventy-five more of the capital's most influential players, two Pulitzer Prize winning... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316111457
• ISBN13: 9780316111454
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 704 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Classic political process book

Perhaps only Showdown at Gucci Gulch matches The System for a true focus on how big-time policy really gets enacted - or doesn't as the Clinton health care drive shows. Whereas the Gucci Gulch focused on Reagan's 1986 tax policy overhaul success, The System follows President Clinton's efforts to revamp healthcare in America. What makes The System more representative of the political process than Gucci Gulch is that healthcare reform failed. Because of Clinton management inexperience, and Gingrich "coagulation" and scare tactics, healthcare reform never happened. That may be for the better. Clinton's plan left little to be desired, though it was not the "socialized medicine" that the right claimed it was. Still, that does not mean it was a worthy plan. The real problem, however, that scoring political success for both sides trumped the search for wise policy. Most everyone at the outset agreed that there was something wrong with healthcare, but change failed to occur. And no one is absolved of blame by Johnson and Broder: the President, First Lady, the wider Administration, Congress, the press, interest groups, and the public all allowed this to happen. Again, that doesn't mean that Clinton's plan should have been adopted, but something could have been done to better deal with the many healthcare problems plaguing the nation. Regardless, The System is a must-read for anyone who wants to see American politics as it really exists.

Stunning inside look at politics

The Clinton Health Care plan was a bold, dramatic attempt to transform the American health care system to take into account the fact that while America may provide the best health care in the world, far too many of its citizens are unable to afford it. Clinton's attempt, probably the most dramatic attempt at a government program since the Great Society, failed miserably and helped to elect a Republican Congress. The battle the voters didn't see was the important one- the battle which nearly sank the Clinton Presidency and destroyed its ambitious health care proposal. The powers arrayed against the Clinton plan were formidable and well-financed, aided by the Administration's mind-numbing blunders."The System" has the entire story- the high hopes, the stunning reversals, the industry's toxic reaction to reform. The Clintonites quickly found that the old adage is true. No good deed goes unpunished."The System" is a very good book at who really calls the shots in American government and how little power people really have against the special interests. More valuable than ten years of civics lessons.

Frustrating insight into Clinton's Health Care Reform

Broder and Johnson give an excellent look into the politics involved in everyday governing. From public speeches to secret meetings, the reader gets a new perspective on Washington and those who work there. The whole process of deal-making, lobbyists, and few compromises leaves the reader frustrated and enlightened about The System.

A must-read for students of the American political process

The System provides a detailed and thorough "case study" of the American political process. While interesting to read simply for the great story the failed Clinton health plan offers, the book's true scholarly value rests in its detail of the agenda-building process. That is, for those interested to see how well theoretical models of the PRE-decisional phase of the American political process describe the "real world," this is the book to read. And it is a great read, to boot.

Read this book for a preview of Clinton Round 2

Reviewing this history of the health reform effort, the central failure of the first Clinton Administration, is an excellent way to anticipate the shape of things to come in Clinton II. The authors, masterful insiders, use their unprecedented access to the highest levels of power to demonstrate how universal coverage, a goal supported by virtually all the key players, drowned in a sea of amateurish, hubris-ridden ineptitude on the part of the boomer generations' "best and brightest". Will history repeat itself in the form of another domestic Vietnam? Or have all the president's persons learned from their mistakes the lessons as set forth by the authors in their incisive conclusion, in which they conclude that the sickest entity of all may well be 'The System' itself