Sam Rosenfeld and Danny Schlozman:
A party facing an erosion of working-class support might pursue, as one alternative path, new material investments in organizational and civic activity distinct altogether from the development of new public policies, whether in the form of party-building, support for allies in civil society, or even old-style patronage. The Democratic Party failed meaningfully to pursue any of these options either in the lead-up to Biden’s election or during his presidency. Indeed, beyond the continued development of a technically sophisticated message-testing machine for campaign-season advertising, Biden-era Democrats hardly attempted to change, let alone transform, the organizational dynamics of the party apparatus itself or the broader associational life surrounding it.
See their new paper, “The Policy Bet: Democrats in a Post-Neoliberal Era.” My earlier review of their excellent 2024 book, The Hollow Parties, is here.
