A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES · 2018. 4. 25. · Contract with America and the Election of 1996 •The official Republican campaign platform of the 1994 election was the “Contract

Copyright ©2011, ©2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.

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The American Journey: A History of the United States, Brief Sixth Edition

Goldfield • Abbott • Argersinger • DeJohn Anderson • Barney • Weir • Argersinger

THE AMERICAN JOURNEYA HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

Brief Sixth Edition

Chapter

Complacency, Crisis, and

Global Reengagement

1993-2010

31





Complacency, Crisis, and Global

Reengagement 1993-2010

• Politics of the Center

• A New Economy?

• Broadening Democracy

• Edging into a New Century

• Paradoxes of Power

• Conclusion





Learning Objectives

• How did Bill Clinton try to capture the

political center?

• What role did new information

technologies play in the economic boom of

the 1990s?

• What gains did women and minorities

make in national politics in the 1990s?

• What were the key elements of George W.

Bush’s agenda?





Learning Objectives (cont'd)

• What were the causes of the Great

Recession?

• How did the government and the American

people respond to the enormous

challenges of the first decade of the

twenty-first century?





Politics of the Center





The Election of 1992:

A New Generation

• The mid-1990s witnessed the coming of

age of Generation X. The generational

change contributed to the volatility of the

1990s.

• Democrat Bill Clinton faced George Bush

and independent Ross Perot in the 1992

election.





The Election of 1992:

A New Generation (cont’d)

• Bush campaigned as a foreign policy

expert while Clinton hammered away at

economic issues and Perot’s erratic

behavior reduced his appeal.

• Clinton won the 1992 election.





MAP 31–1 The Election of 1992





Policing the World

• Clinton reluctantly committed the United

States to a multinational effort to end the

bloody civil war in Bosnia in 1995.

• In 1999, the U.S. joined a NATO

intervention in Kosovo.





Policing the World (cont'd)

• The new Europe changed NATO. A key

step was expansion into the former Soviet

sphere in eastern Europe. Poland,

Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined

NATO in 1992.

• In 1995, Russia was given a formal role in

discussion of NATO policy issues.





Clinton’s Neoliberalism

• Clinton envisioned a partnership between

a leaner government and a dynamic

private sector.

• The 1994 crime bill included money to hire

more police, funded anticrime programs,

and banned certain kinds of assault rifles.

• Clinton’s major failure was an inability to

pass comprehensive healthcare

legislation.





Clinton’s Neoliberalism (cont’d)

Neoliberal

- Advocate of or participant in the effort to reshape

the Democratic Party for the 1990s around a

policy emphasizing economic growth and

competitiveness in the world economy.





Contract with America and the Election

of 1996

• The official Republican campaign platform

of the 1994 election was the “Contract with

America” that called for a revolutionary

reduction in federal responsibilities.






of 1996 (cont'd)

• A battle over the budget between Clinton

and the Republican Congress shut down

the government for three weeks. Speaker

of the House Newt Gingrich and his

congressional allies were painted by

Democrats and in the media as a radical

fringe.






of 1996 (cont'd)

• In 1996, Congress passed the Temporary

Assistance Needy Families program to

end welfare as it had been.

• Clinton was reelected in 1996.






of 1996 (cont'd)

Contract with America

- Platform on which many Republican candidates

ran for Congress in 1994. Associated with House

Speaker Newt Gingrich, it proposed a sweeping

reduction in the role and activities of the federal

government.






of 1996 (cont'd)

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

(TANF)

- Federal program created in 1996 to replace

earlier welfare programs to aid families and

children; it involves explicit work requirements for

receiving aid and places a time limit on benefits.





The Dangers of Everyday Life

• Random violence, including murders in

schools and the capture of the

“Unabomber,” shocked Americans.

• The FBI raid in Waco, Texas killed over 80

people.

• The bombing of the federal office building

in Oklahoma City killed 169 people and

raised the specter of domestic terrorism.





The Dangers of Everyday Life (cont'd)

• The Brady Handgun Violence Prevent Act

or Brady Bill set up a waiting period and

background checks on gun purchases.

Gun control was political dynamite.

• The prison boom was stimulated by the

drug war and caused diversion of state

funds from education and healthcare.

• The crime rate fell steadily after 1991.





Morality and Partisanship

• President Clinton’s personal life was the

hot news of the late 1990s.

• Questions about Whitewater and sexual

indiscretions plagued Clinton from 1994

until he left office.

• In 1998, Republican House leaders

impeached Clinton but the Senate did not

convict him.





Morality and Partisanship (cont'd)

Whitewater

- Arkansas real estate development in which Bill

and Hillary Clinton were investors; several fraud

convictions resulted from investigations into

Whitewater, but evidence was not found that the

Clintons were involved in wrongdoing.





A New Economy?





A New Economy?

• The Y2K problem illustrated how much the

American economy had changed in the

preceding decade. The electronic

revolution had transformed it into a global

economy that depended on computing to

manage and transmit vast quantities of

data.





The Prosperous 1990s

• From 1992 to 2000, American enjoyed

nine years of continuous economic

expansion. Unemployment dropped, the

stock market soared, and the number of

Americans living in poverty dropped.

• The economic boom turned government

deficits into surpluses.





The Prosperous 1990s (cont’d)

• Substantial gains in the efficiency of the

American economy stood behind the rosy

statistics.





Politics of the Center (cont'd)

Internet

- The system of interconnected computers and

servers that allows the exchange of e-mail,

posting of websites, and other means of instant

communication.





Presidential Impeachment





The Service Economy

• At the beginning of the 21st century,

America was a service economy. The

information service economy flourished in

academies, hospitals, and business.

• The rise of the service economy had

political implications.





The High-Tech Sector

• Invention of the microprocessor in 1971

stimulated the computer industry. Local

regions such as Silicon Valley emerged as

centers of high technology.

• Extraordinary capacity in computer

capacity drove the electronic boom by

vastly increasing the capacities and

portability of computers.





The High-Tech Sector (cont'd)

• The computer industry generated an

accompanying software industry.

• Personal computers and consumer

electronics became part of everyday life.





Politics of the Center (cont'd)

Silicon Valley

- The region of California between San Jose and

San Francisco that holds the nation’s greatest

concentration of electronics firms.





An Instant Society

• Cable television reflected the

fragmentation of American society and the

increasing dependence on instant

communication. Americans had dozens of

cable channels to choose from for

entertainment, information, and sports.

• The electronic society in the 1990s

learned to use e-mail for communication

and access information via the Internet.





An Instant Society (cont'd)

• Dotcom businesses experienced a boom

in the late 1990s.

• Cellphones also transformed

communications.

World Wide Web

- Since 1991, the Web has expanded the use of the

Internet by allowing organizations and companies

to create websites that place political and

commercial information only a few clicks away

from wired consumers.





In the World Market

• Instant access to business and financial

information accelerated the globalization

of the American economy.

• The North American Free Trade

Agreement in 1993 and the General

Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in

1994 aimed to expand foreign trade by

cutting tariffs and creating a free trade

zone.





In the World Market (cont'd)

• The World Trade Organization replaced

GATT in 1996 and became the target of a

global protest movement.

North American Free Trade Agreement

(NAFTA)

- Agreement reached in 1993 by Canada, Mexico,

and the United States to substantially reduce

barriers to trade.





In the World Market (cont'd)

World Trade Organization

- International organization that sets standards and

practices for global trade, and the focus of

international protests over world economic policy

in the late 1990s.





Broadening Democracy





Americans in 2000

• The American population increased by

13.2 percent in the 1990s.

• The West grew the fastest with Nevada,

Arizona, Colorado, and Idaho recorded the

highest percentage rates. Las Vegas was

the fastest growing city.

• Rural counties in the Great Plains and

Appalachia continued to empty out.





Americans in 2000 (cont'd)

• Increasing ethnic and racial diversity was

another trend. Hispanics were the fastest

growing group.

• A multi-ethnic baby boom began.





TABLE 31–1

Immigrants 1991–2007,

by Continent and by

Twenty





TABLE 31–2 States with

Highest Proportions of

Minority





Women from the Grass Roots to

Congress

• The increasing prominence of women and

family in national politics bore fruit in the

1990s.

• Women became much more prominent in

federal government positions, reflecting

their growing importance in grassroots

politics.





Women from the Grass Roots to

Congress (cont’d)

• Regional difference have affected

women’s political gains. The West has

long been more open to women in state

and local government.

• Minorities at the Ballot Box

The growing diversity helped black and Latino

candidates for office.





MAP 31–2 Women in Professional and

Managerial Occupations, 2001





Minorities at the Ballot Box

• The growing diversity helped black and

Latino candidates for office.

• By 1983, three of the nation’s four largest

cities had an African American mayor and

in 1989 Virginia elected the first African

American governor.

• Political rebalancing to voting by districts

often helped minority candidates.





Minorities at the Ballot Box (cont’d)

• At the national level, minorities gradually

increased their representation in

Congress.





FIGURE 31–1 Minorities and Women in

Congress, 1869–2009





Rights and Opportunities

• Illegal immigration has had an economic

impact because illegal immigrants fill jobs

nobody else wants.

• High immigration can strain local

government budgets and led to

Proposition 187 in 1994 that cut off access

to programs serving illegal immigrants.





Rights and Opportunities (cont'd)

• A symbolic issue was the degree to which

American institutions should

accommodate non-English speakers.

Twenty-six states declared English their

official language.

• Established in the 1960s, affirmative

action came under heavy criticism leading

to actions that reduced minority enrollment

in higher education institutions.






Proposition 187

- California legislation adopted by popular vote in

California in 1994, which cuts off state-funded

health and education benefits to undocumented or

illegal immigrants.

Affirmative Action

- A set of policies to open opportunities in business

and education for members of minority groups

and women by allowing race and sex to be factors

included in decisions to hire, award contracts, or

admit students to higher education programs.






University of California v. Bakke

- U.S. Supreme Court case in 1978 that allowed

race to be used as one of several factors in

college and university admission decisions but

made rigid quotas unacceptable.





Edging Into a New Century





The 2000 Election

• The election of 2000 ended with a series

of legal actions that affirmed Republican

George W. Bush as the victor over

Democrat Al Gore.

• The disputed outcome showed the nation

was divided around a strong center.










Reaganomics Revisited

• Bush introduced massive tax cuts and

deregulation.

• Education legislation represented a

compromise that called for national

testing.





TABLE 31–3 Economic Inequality: 2008





Downsized Diplomacy

• The Bush administration discarded

negotiation for adoption of unilateral or

bilateral policies.





Downsized Diplomacy (cont’d)

• Bush opted out of a series of treaties and

negotiations on global issues. The

administration undercut efforts to

implement the Convention on Biological

Warfare and refused to sign efforts to

reduce the international trade in

armaments.





Downsized Diplomacy (cont’d)

• Bush also decided not to implement the

START II treaty, a major accomplishment

of his father’s administration.





Paradoxes of Power





September 11, 2001

• The Al-Qaeda network planned and

implemented the terrorist attack on the

World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

• The events of September 11 were an

enormous shock to Americans.

• Worries about terrorism were not new.

Detailed warnings had been given in the

report of the U.S. National Commission on

National Security in the 21st Century.





Flames shoot from the

South Tower of the World

Trade Center in New York





Security and Conflict

• Bush called the terrorist attacks acts of

war and launched the war on terrorism.

• Congress gave the president sweeping

powers and later passed the PATRIOT Act

and approved the reorganization of the

government.





Security and Conflict (cont'd)

PATRIOT Act

- Federal legislation adopted in 2001, in response

to the terrorist attacks of September 11, intended

to facilitate antiterror actions by federal law

enforcement and intelligence agencies.





Iraq and Conflicts in the Middle East

• Bush named Iraq, North Korea, and Iran

an “axis of evil.”

• The United States watched as the Israeli-

Palestinian agreements for transition to a

Palestinian state collapsed.

• In spring and summer of 2002, the Bush

administration began preparations for war

against Iraq.





MAP 31–4 U.S. Military Involvement in Western

Asia





Hurricane and Financial Storm

• After Bush’s solid re-election in 2004,

American commitment to its presence to

Iraq was reaffirmed, eventually leading to

the creation of a functioning government.

• Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf

Coast at the end of 2005, as the slowness

and inadequacy of the emergency

response raised serious doubts about the

government’s effectiveness.





Hurricane and Financial Storm (cont'd)

• Financial disaster struck in 2008 in a

cascading effect led by the collapse of the

real estate market and the subprime

mortgage crisis. A huge influx of

government bailout funds was deployed to

stabilize critical sectors of the economy.

Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)

- Federal program in 2008 to purchase or

guarantee shaky bank assets to protect the

economy from widespread bank failures.





The Obama Phenomenon

• With the election of Barack Obama in

2008, the United States passed an

important step in its national maturity by

electing an African American as president.

• The enthusiasm of Obama’s campaign

quickly gave way to political realities. By

2010, the American people no longer

trusted either party to deliver the change

they desired.










Core Support for Republicans and Democrats in 2008





Conclusion





Conclusion

• Interconnection was a major theme of the

1990s and early 2000s.

• Closely connected to the internationalized

economy was the nation’s growing

diversity.

• The events of September 11 sparked a

renewed sense of national unity.





FIGURE 31–2 The United States in the Global

Economy

Documents

A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES · 2018. 4. 25. · Contract with America and the Election of 1996 •The official Republican campaign platform of the 1994 election was the “Contract