Georgetown University Press Podcast

Virginia Gray, David Lowery, and Jennifer Benz are the authors of Interest Group$ and Health Care Reform Across the United State$ (Georgetown University Press, 2013). Gray is Distinguished Professor of Political Science, UNC, Chapel Hill, Lowery is Professor of Political Science at Pennsylvania State University, and Jennifer Benz is a Senior Researcher at NORC at the University of Chicago.In the wake of the passage of national health care reform (Affordable Care Act (ACA)), we may all have overlooked the plethora of policy making at the state level. Why is it that the ACA took over 50 years to pass, yet states have regularly changed their own health care regulations?This book investigates how state policy makers have reformed health care laws from 1988-2002 with a focus on: market controls; mandated employee coverage; coverage for needy families; and single-payer systems. As the title suggests, they pay particular attention to the role interest groups have played in reform. The authors end the book with a discussion of the implementation of the ACA by states. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thomas Holyoke has recently published Competitive Interests: Competition and Compromise in American Interest Group Politics with Georgetown University Press (2011). Tom is an Associate Professor of Political Science at California State University – Fresno. His book advances political science knowledge of the political process through an in-depth analysis of the role of interest groups. The book is based on interviews with nearly 90 lobbyists who have advocated on issues as varied as environmental policy to banking reform. The book contributes a rich empirical analysis supported by statistical models, but also a careful development of theory. Holyoke speaks to both the interest group audience and the wider field of American politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his new book Qatar: A Modern History (Georgetown University Press, 2012), Dr. Allen Fromherz, a professor at Georgia State University, analyzes the cultural and political forces that have shaped Qatar’s history. Going beyond the common focus on Qatar’s oil economy, Dr. Fromherz discusses Qatar’s formation as an independent state, the effect of its large percentage of expatriate workers, the interaction of the various tribes that govern Qatar, and how the Al-Thani tribe emerged as the top amongst equals. Dr. Fromherz argues that there is far more to the past, present, and future of Qatar than its massive oil wealth. Although it is a small nation with a small native population, Qatar has frequently played an influential role in international affairs. Dr. Fromherz details the many ways in which Qatar has exercised influence around the Middle East in the past, and how they continue to do so now. His book fills a large void in the scholarly literature on Qatar, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the forces that have shaped the history of the Middle East, and how they will influence its future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices