Even though most Americans are politically moderate, American politics is careening to the right. Why? And what can be done?The Republicans who run American government today have defied the normal laws of political gravity. They have ruled with the slimmest of majorities, yet transformed the nation’s governing priorities. They have strayed dramatically from the moderate What do Hacker and Pierson mean when they say American politics has veered “off center”?They mean the policies that elected leaders are pursuing are dramatically to the right of the moderate center of American opinion. As they show, profound changes in American politics have given Republicans far greater reason to cater to their conservative “base” than in the past. Isn’t this what always happens: Republicans appeal to conservatives, Democrats to liberals?What Hacker and Pierson find most troubling is that moderate voters are no longer a consistent check on extremism. If politicians veer off center, the normal checks and balances of American government are supposed to pull them back. Yet Republicans have short-circuited many of these checks and balances. This doesn’t just hurt Democrats, they argue. It hurts democracy. Should we simply blame President George W. Bush and his administration?No. Bush has abetted the trends that Hacker and Pierson describe, but he is hardly the only politician who has headed off center. The story that the authors tell is not of one powerful leader overriding public sentiment and democratic procedures. It is actually more troubling: It is the story of a systemic weakening of the bonds between ordinary voters and elected politicians. Can American politics be brought back to the center?Yes—if Americans understand the stakes. Hacker and Pierson call for new reforms to increase the political resources of the middle and to make elections more competitive and politicians more accountable. With some important reforms, they believe the center can hold. Written in a highly accessible style by two professional political scientists, OFF CENTER tells the disturbing story of a deliberative process restricted and distorted by party chieftains, of unresponsive power brokers subverting the popular will, and of legislation written by and for powerful interests and deliberately designed to mute popular discontent. In the best tradition of engaged social science, OFF CENTER is a powerful and informed critique that points the way toward a stronger foundation for American democracy. |  |
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middle of public opinion, yet faced little public backlash. Again and again, they have sided with the affluent and the ultraconservative, while paying little heed to the broad majority of Americans. And more often than not, they have come out on top. In 
