Susan Tolchin, Political Scientist Who Foresaw Tide of Voter Anger, Dies at 75.
'Susan J. Tolchin, a political scientist who explored the workings of political patronage, women in politics and, most presciently, the electoral power of voter anger in several popular books, most of them written with her husband, Martin Tolchin, died on Wednesday at her home in Washington. She was 75. . .
The picture it painted was often bleak, presenting government at all levels as “one vast honey pot with thousands of ants lined up around the rim to get at the sweetener inside,” according to a review in The Times. . .
As a subject, the dark arts of political patronage proved to be an inexhaustible resource. She tapped into an equally persistent theme in the one book she wrote without her husband, “The Angry American: How Voter Rage Is Changing the Nation” (1996).
In that book, she identified deep-seated voter anger, fueled by an uncertain economy, cultural divisions and disenchantment with government, as a potent force that politicians needed to understand and harness. “People hate government,” she wrote, “because they expect more than government can possibly deliver, particularly in this era of budget constraints.”
In a sense, the book offered a preview of the current political climate. “Remember Peter Finch flinging open the window in the movie ‘Network’ and screaming, ‘I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!’” she wrote in her introduction. “The question of the decade is, What happens now that the window has been opened?”'
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/books/susan-tolchin-political-scientist-who-foresaw-tide-of-voter-anger-dies-at-75.html?
