Paper Abstract:
"Social Movements and the Rise of New Issues"

by Frank Baumgartner

Using a comprehensive database showing the range of issues discussed in Congress over the entire post-World War Two period, this paper focuses on the dramatic rise of new issues in American politics. Some of these issues, such as health care, have arisen as government programs have expanded. Others, such as environmental issues, have social movements clearly at their core. However, all issues show a complex interdependence between social movements and pre-existing or newly created government programs. As more social movements have demanded and justified the growth of a variety of government programs over the decades since World War Two, dramatic changes have occurred in the nature of government itself. These changes, in turn, have affected the nature of social movements and professional communities. Thus, the paper focuses on the interconnections between social movements and public policies.

This paper focuses on the areas of activity of the U.S. federal government, with only secondary evidence concerning social movements themselves. Extensive data collection is planned over the next several years that will allow for the explicit linkage between the growth of social movement organizations (SMOs), professional groups, and other associations and the public agenda data reported here. In the absence of these more systematic data on social movements themselves, I focus on the public policy side of the equation, exploring some likely areas of linkage between public policy and social movements.