Max J Skidmore
Biographic Data
| ID | 681460 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Max J Skidmore |
| GIVEN NAMES | Max J |
| FAMILY NAME | Skidmore |
| SIGNATURE | SKIDMORE M J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Missouri–Kansas City |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9057-3854 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 70 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 70 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1968 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Abortion—Reactionary theocracy rises in America, while declining elsewhere
Abortion suddenly dominated politics when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a half‐century of constitutional protection for reproductive choices. The issue varies around the world but is especially powerful in the United States because Protestant fundamentalists and Catholics cooperated to capture one of America's two major political parties. That Republican Party has now packed the courts. The result is the decision that melded political and rel…
Social Security And Its Enemies: The Case for America's Most Efficient Insurance Program
This book explains the history and principles of the social security system. It explains why social security is sound and documents the covert war against social insurance that dates back to the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935, explaining how the opposition emerged with a vengeance
Social Security and Its Enemies: The Case for America's Most Efficient Insurance Program
Considering Structural and Ideological Barriers to Anti‐Poverty Programs in the United States: An Uninhibited, and Unconventional, Analysis
Historical circumstances and ideological factors combine to obscure the presence and severity of poverty in the United States. Moreover, in recent years, America's two‐party system has become increasingly nonsymmetrical, with a significant segment of the political system devoted to privatization, deferring to demands from religious fundamentalists, and draining power and authority from the government (with the notable exception of police and mili…
Advancing Toward Science: Retreating From Responsibility
Political scientists currently devote considerable effort to forecasting, but when it comes to policy, they rarely deal with content as opposed to efficacy, efficiency, or cost‐effectiveness. Similarly, they hardly ever consider “speaking truth to power” to be their obligation. This article suggests that policy and ethics would benefit if political scientists, like economists, would utilize their skills to do so. Caution, though, is necessary
Policy Insights From Party History
Max J. Skidmore examines party history in the United States, specifically discussing three books: two treatments of the Republican Party, Lewis Gould's The Republicans: A History of the Grand Old Party ; and Heather Cox Richardson's To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party . He also examines a broader analysis by Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains . He concludes, and demonstrates, that party history—even the history of a single party—c…
Two Inside Views of a Most Bizarre Election—With a Forthright Analysis From Outside
Editor Max J. Skidmore reviews two books on the 2016 elections and provides his own analysis of the Trump presidency and its effect on policies
Focus on Welfare “Reform”: More Thoughtful Analysis From a Conservative
Editor Max J. Skidmore continues the journal's analyses of TANF and other welfare programs, presenting additional penetrating evaluation from a conservative whose concern for accuracy leads him to take his fellow conservatives to task for erroneous reporting—reporting that incorrectly portrays “reform” as a success. The conservative, “Peter the Citizen,” adds to his previous comments on the subject
Conservative” Ideological Principles and Social Programs: “Conservative” Principles
Although Max J. Skidmore employs the form of a review essay in this piece, his analysis is actually not a review, and makes no pretense of reviewing the works listed below. Instead, it is an examination of the failure of what passes today in the United States for conservatism, its inability to achieve the stated goals of its adherents, its role in reducing the ability of those adherents to determine fact from fiction, its harmful effects upon the…
Considerations Regarding the SSA Board of Trustees’ Report, 2017
Max J. Skidmore discusses the reports of the Trustees of the Social Security Administration, and their public reception, inspired by the release on 13 July of the report for 2017
Social Security for the Future: A Fiscally Sound Proposal to Expand Benefits and Add Progressivity to the System's Funding (With Additional Suggestions for Closure of Coverage Gaps)
The following plan restores Social Security to long-range actuarial balance by providing additional funding while making that funding somewhat progressive, as the benefit structure already is. It also is a response to the upward redistribution of income and wealth over the last few decades, which is projected to continue. Thus, the higher the wages, the closer one would be to paying the current level of 6.2 percent, although no one would actually…
How Successful Has Tanf Been? Taking Seriously a Thoughtful Analysis From the Right, With a Tip of the Hat to Peter the Citizen
Editor Max J. Skidmore discusses a welcome exchange with the co‐author of a 1983 article on Social Security that he has severely criticized numerous times. Peter Germanis, now writing as “Peter the Citizen,” reached out to indicate that he now directs his attention to TANF, and has not considered Social Security for many years. The resulting communication clearly demonstrates that thoughtful conservatives can set aside ideological considerations …
Shining Light on Dark Politics: An Essay and Review
Max J. Skidmore considers the state of anti‐poverty legislation and programs in the United States, as well as the general condition of American politics today. In the course of his essay, he reviews a number of relevant studies and describes the dark forces that are explicitly attacking programs that improve the lives of Americans. He discusses the imposition of “dark money” throughout the American political system that has replaced truth with li…
Gender, Agency and War: The Maternalized Body in U.S. Foreign Policy
The Inside Story of Social Security in the United States
Social Security and Its Discontents: A Review Essay
On Assessing the Written Word: An Essay on the Art and Craft of Reviewing
Academic Evaluation: Review Genres in University Settings. Edited by Ken Hyland and Giuliana Diani (Houndsmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), vii + 245 pp. £50.00; $90.00 cloth. Faint Praise: The
Bipartisanship” as a Detriment to Anti‐ P overty Efforts: Some Contrarian Comments
The preoccupation of media and Beltway insiders with “bipartisanship” to the exclusion of policy content is an obstacle to the adoption of effective anti‐poverty measures
Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and the Long Campaign Against Social Security: Dodging the Bullet in 2012
The campaign against Social Security began as soon as the act was passed, but gathered momentum only when Ronald Reagan as early as the 1950s became a focal point for critics. Lyndon B. Johnson successfully countered the anti–Social Security/anti-Medicare opposition, but the rhetoric from the Reagan administration paved the way for G. W. Bush's anti–Social Security efforts, and the virulent opposition to the Affordable Care Act that led to the 20…
The Affordable Care Act: Dispersing the Fog of Misinformation
Editor Max J. Skidmore provides a concise history and political analysis of the attacks on American efforts to achieve near universal health care, and also reviews an innovative history of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Sex, Mom, & God: How the Bible's Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics—and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) AnywayFrankSchaeffer. Philadelphia: DaCapo Press, 2011
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of ProhibitionDanielOkrent. New York: Scribner, 2010
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a PresidentCandiceMillard. New York: Doubleday, 2011
Assisting the Working Poor in the USA
Max J. Skidmore reviews Boosting Paychecks: The Politics of Supporting America's Working Poor, by Daniel P. Gitterman
The History and Politics of Health Care in America: From the Progressive Era to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Max J. Skidmore surveys the history and politics of the development of health care delivery in the United States, and reviews Health Care Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know, by Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol. This study, by two prominent scholars of health care in America, is a detailed analysis of the process that led to adoption of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, and of the details of the Act
An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968
Promise and Peril in Combating Corruption: Hong Kong's Icac
Since its founding, Hong Kong had been troubled with corruption. Eventually, the corruption became so serious as to threaten some of the basic institutions of society. In response, the government attempted an approach different from its past efforts. It created an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which immediately began to have considerable success. ICAC not only eliminated much of the corruption, but it succeeded in changing pub…
Ethics and Public Service
There is widespread concern for ethics in government, and news reports justify that concern. The public's emphasis, fueled by both accurate and inaccurate reporting, appears to center upon the conduct of elected officials. Some of that reporting is significant, and some is trivial. Professional literature tends to concentrate upon the bureaucracy. This article traces the history in general of ethical thought regarding public service in America an…
More Than Mere Fantasy: Political Themes in Contemporary Comic Books
The First Emancipation: The Abolition of Slavery in the North
The People, the Economy, and the Issues: A Participant Reports on National “Town Hall” Meetings on the Deficit
On June 26, 2010, the organization “AmericaSpeaks” sponsored “town hall meetings” in various cities around the United States, built around the theme “Our Budget, Our Economy.” The sessions purported to aim at determining the degree of support from citizens for various ways to reduce the country's budget deficit. Editor Max J. Skidmore applied to attend one of these meetings, and was accepted. He reports on his experiences as a participant, and al…
Revisiting a Classic after Nearly a Half Century
Max Skidmore reviews Michael Harrington's 1962 Classic The Other America: Poverty in the United States, assessing the work's staying power over nearly two generations
Oriental Contributions to Western Popular Culture: The Martial Arts
Subliminal Politics: Myths and Mythmakers in America, by Dan Nimmo and James E. Combs
Medicare and the American Rhetoric of Reconciliation
Sectional Stress and Party Strength: A Computer Analysis of Roll-Call Voting Patterns in the United States House of Representatives, 1836-1860
Abortion—Reactionary theocracy rises in America, while declining elsewhere
Abortion suddenly dominated politics when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a half‐century of constitutional protection for reproductive choices. The issue varies around the world but is especially powerful in the United States because Protestant fundamentalists and Catholics cooperated to capture one of America's two major political parties. That Republican Party has now packed the courts. The result is the decision that melded political and rel…
The Inside Story of Social Security in the United States
Bipartisanship” as a Detriment to Anti‐ P overty Efforts: Some Contrarian Comments
The preoccupation of media and Beltway insiders with “bipartisanship” to the exclusion of policy content is an obstacle to the adoption of effective anti‐poverty measures
Scholarly Support for Social Security: A Political History of Prevailing Beliefs, and of the Growing Number of Works Demonstrating that the “Conventional” Often Is Not “Wisdom”
Max J. Skidmore examines the current “conventional wisdom” regarding Social Security, and discusses a dozen of the growing number of books countering prevailing beliefs. He demonstrates that the “conventional” often is not “wisdom,” but rather received dogma inspired by well‐financed special interests
Poverty in the Twenty‐First Century: Explaining the Need for the New Journal and Describing Its Goals
Max J. Skidmore, Editor‐in‐Chief of Poverty & Public Policy, explains the need for this new journal and contextualizes its goals. He emphasizes the journal's commitment to making a difference, offering a place for views that may be unorthodox or foreign to mainstream policy studies. He introduces the authors of the inaugural issue, and renews the call for manuscripts of quality for subsequent issues which may include empirical research, case stud…
Ideologies and the nation-state
The Functions of Communist One-Party Elections: The Case of Czechoslovakia, 1971
Elections in one-party Communist nations are more than empty rituals. Their detailed analysis of the Czechoslovak elections of 1971 describes the Communist leadership's elaborate efforts to assure a big turnout that would be considered a popular endorsement of the new regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Political Science Quarterly (Academy of Political Science) is the property of Academy of Political Science and its content may not be cop…
Food and Drug Legislation in the New Deal
Sectional Stress and Party Strength: A Computer Analysis of Roll-Call Voting Patterns in the United States House of Representatives, 1836-1860
The First Emancipation: The Abolition of Slavery in the North
An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968
Food and Drug Legislation in the New Deal
Medicare and the American Rhetoric of Reconciliation
Kefauver
The Functions of Communist One-Party Elections: The Case of Czechoslovakia, 1971
Elections in one-party Communist nations are more than empty rituals. Their detailed analysis of the Czechoslovak elections of 1971 describes the Communist leadership's elaborate efforts to assure a big turnout that would be considered a popular endorsement of the new regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Political Science Quarterly (Academy of Political Science) is the property of Academy of Political Science and its content may not be cop…
Word Politics: Essays on Language and Politics
American Political Thought
Subliminal Politics: Myths and Mythmakers in America, by Dan Nimmo and James E. Combs
More Than Mere Fantasy: Political Themes in Contemporary Comic Books
Ronald Reagan and “Operation Coffeecup”: A Hidden Episode in American Political History
Oriental Contributions to Western Popular Culture: The Martial Arts
Ideologies and the nation-state
Political language and political ideology
(1994). Political language and political ideology. History of European Ideas: Vol. 19, No. 4-6, pp. 715-720
Ethics and Public Service
There is widespread concern for ethics in government, and news reports justify that concern. The public's emphasis, fueled by both accurate and inaccurate reporting, appears to center upon the conduct of elected officials. Some of that reporting is significant, and some is trivial. Professional literature tends to concentrate upon the bureaucracy. This article traces the history in general of ethical thought regarding public service in America an…
Film at the intersection of high and mass culture
Film at the intersection of high and mass culture." History of European Ideas, 22(2), pp. 126–127
Promise and Peril in Combating Corruption: Hong Kong's Icac
Since its founding, Hong Kong had been troubled with corruption. Eventually, the corruption became so serious as to threaten some of the basic institutions of society. In response, the government attempted an approach different from its past efforts. It created an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which immediately began to have considerable success. ICAC not only eliminated much of the corruption, but it succeeded in changing pub…
Renaissance to millennium: Ideological insights from creative works
The Folk Culture of “The Travelers”: Clans of Con Artists
Ideas and the Arts: Germanic Music in Early Pennsylvania
Theodore Roosevelt on Race and Gender
Censorship: Who Needs It? How the Conventional Wisdom Restricts Information's Free Flow
Anticipating Madam President
Madam President? The question is not if, but rather when the United States will elect a female president—but that may be the only certainty involved in shattering this most visible glass ceiling in U.S. society. Who will be included in the field of candidates for Madam President, and why? How will she have to position herself for a viable run at the Oval Office? Once in office, will she encounter gender-based biases in her handling of military an…
After the White House: Former Presidents as Private Citizens
After completing their terms, several former chief executives used their influence to change the course of history. Four became presidential candidates again (one, Grover Cleveland, was even elected), two served in Congress, one betrayed his country to accept election to the Confederate Congress, and one became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Bill Clinton has had the unique distinction of seeing his First Lady become a United States senator. …
Political science (58 works) · Law (55 works) · Law (45 works) · Sociology (43 works) · Politics (35 works) · Computer Science (26 works) · Citation (23 works) · History (23 works) · Library science (20 works) · Economics (17 works)