Pluralism, Elitism, and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act

Abstract

Pluralism and elitism are the two prevailing theories of policy making in the United States. The purposes of this article are to suggest an alternative framework linkage political economy and to evaluate that framework against both pluralist and elitist policy explanations. The evaluation will take place within the medium of a case study on housing policy. The linkage political economy framework addresses some of the weaknesses evident in both pluralist and elitist studies of public policy. For example, in the housing policy field, elite theorists assert that policy making is dominated by a cohesive, politically powerful corporate bloc made up of the construction, finance, and realty industries.I But the elite theorists are then hard pressed to explain policy failures of this dominant coalition such as the passage of the 1937 public housing program or the original low-income thrust of the 1949 urban redevelopment program. On the other hand, pluralist analysts find a much more open and balanced policy process with a wide spectrum of interests able to be heard through multiple channels available in a decentralized political process.2 Yet, this pluralist analysis cannot adequately explain the consistent bias in U.S. housing policies and out-