Ideas, Policy Feedback and the American Political Economy

In their volume The American Political Economy, Jacob S. Hacker et al. seek to renew the study of American political economy (APE) through a direct engagement with other areas of political science, including and especially comparative political economy (CPE). In the introduction of their volume, they lay out the foundations of APE as both a field of research and an approach to American politics that seeks to contribute to the study of the United States as well as to the broader discipline of political science. In this review essay, I will discuss the APE as an intellectual project to stress its key assumptions and its potential contribution to the study of politics and public policy, in the United States and beyond. Then, I will discuss two key issues that, while not explicitly central to APE as developed in The American Political Economy, could help enrich this novel approach. These two issues are policy feedback, a concept already prominent in the institutionalist tradition APE draws on, and the role of ideas in politics, which in recent decades has gained more currency in the study of politics, public policy and CPE.