In this study we examine policy initiatives for the years 1961-2012 including some first proposed before that time but still being debated in 1961 and thereafter.  Most of the initiatives that we examine were heavily influenced by liberals, conservatives, and self-interested groups. One of our major themes is that a surprisingly large number of these initiatives were formulated out of liberal-conservative consensus, and that even with many that developed amid contentious ideological debate there was substantial liberal movement toward conservative positions or conservative movement toward liberal positions as implementation occurred.  Rigid liberal-conservative disagreement was relatively uncommon even though many descriptions of policy formulation portray the U.S. political environment as deadlocked in the 1950s and 1960s and polarized now.  We believe that the commonly occurring ideological agreement (during formulation or implementation) has its origins in the common ideological heritage of liberalism and conservatism.

We are concerned with the effectiveness of policy initiatives and whether they are worthwhile.  We offer approaches to the evaluation of policy initiatives that are as objective as possible within the framework of liberalism and conservatism.  We also examine the tools used to implement initiatives and ideological preferences among those tools.  Finally, we look at patterns of political interaction that commonly lead to the passage of effective and worthwhile initiatives or ineffective and worthless initiatives.

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