The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacies (review)

Thanks to the publication of this path-breaking, interdisciplinary collection, scholarly research into various aspects of Ronald Reagan's presidency has come of age. Historians, political scientists, and economists, employing fresh materials from the Reagan Library, examine Reagan's conservative rhetoric, analyze the policies that he pursued as president, and explore the meaning and significance of his legacy. More specifically, they focus on taxes, foreign policy, the environment, and welfare policy, along with other topics.

From a variety of perspectives, contributors to this rich and balanced collection agree that Reagan's election in 1980 raised conservative expectations, but several essayists suggest that Reagan was not the hard-line, unyielding politician that his rhetoric often suggested. Gareth B. Davies writes that Reagan "had the fixity of belief of the true believer but not the attitude toward political compromise that typically accompanies such intensity" (225). Reagan might have pushed the public agenda to the right, but he was prepared, in some cases, to settle for less than maximum success in order to obtain results that he could justify as progress. As a pragmatic conservative, he recognized that politics generally remained the art of the possible, especially since the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives throughout his years in office, and the Senate after 1986.

Reagan was largely uninterested in some aspects of the conservative social agenda of his day, including calls for civil-rights reform and demands for significant changes to the immigration laws. He was most intent on achieving massive tax cuts and changes in tax rates. Contrary to his earlier rhetoric, he earnestly sought to improve relations with the Soviet Union after 1984, which quickly angered some conservatives. Thus arises the question, Was there a Reagan revolution, given the partial nature of Reagan's accomplishments and successes? Ted V. McAllister speaks for many when he notes that Reagan created a paradigm shift in how public-policy matters were framed, which surely affected Bill Clinton's candidacy for president in 1992. David M. O'Brien states that Reagan's court appointments moved the federal judiciary "in a decidedly conservative direction" (350). Other contributors point to a less positive answer, none more directly than James Patterson.

Patterson finds the argument on behalf of a Reagan Revolution excessive. He notes, for example, that welfare spending was higher in 1989 than in 1981 and that the number of federal employees increased more rapidly under Reagan than Jimmy Carter. Social Security and Medicare remained intact, and federal-government spending "as a percentage of the gross domestic product was slightly higher under Reagan than it was to become under Bill Clinton" (368). Also, deficits swelled and economic growth was no better than in Carter's worse years. However, Patterson also observes that Reagan's legacies on the issues that meant the most to him, such as tax rates and Soviet–American relations, "have been durable as well as significant" (371). All in all, concludes Patterson, Reagan's shadow remains "large" (371).