In a landmark report by the U.S. Surgeon General in 1964, the government warned its citizens of the adverse effects of smoking on their health and took a series of steps to discourage smoking. These steps stemmed from “ordinary politics” –that is, actions taken or authorized by legislatures. 1994 heralded a new era in tobacco politics: of “adversarial legalism,” wherein state attorneys general sued leading cigarette manufacturers for the harm they had done to public health. These law-suits culminated in the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) that directed an estimated $250 billion to state governments over the next 25 years and imposed new marketing and advertising restrictions.
In her second edition, Martha Derthick introduces new evidence from 5 years of experience under the MSA to show that the states were more interested in raising revenue than in improving tobacco control, that the enrichment of wealthy tort lawyers violated the legal profession's ethics, and that the agreement, ironically, spawned the rise of small, upstart cigarette manufacturers able to undersell the major companies. In this clearly written, fast-paced case study, Derthick concludes that the tobacco lawsuits not only produced flawed public policy that flouted the American system of checks and balances, but has done little to improve or better safeguard public health.
Table of Contents
1. A New Way of Regulating Tobacco
Shift in Policymaking Strategy
Master Settlement Agreement
FDA Campaign
Purpose of the Book
2. The Ordinary Politics of Legislation
Smoking Linked to Cancer
Birth of the Antismoking Movement
Congress as National Policymaker
State and Local Legislation
3. Ordinary Torts: Litigation Before It Was Substituted for Legislation
The Early Cases
Later Litigation
The Ascendancy of the Lawyers
The Search for a Safer Cigarette
4. The Drive for FDA Regulation
Kessler Engages the Issue
Getting the Goods on the Industry
Enlisting President Clinton
The Regulations
5. The New Wave of Litigation
The Lawyers
Planning the Strategy
Entry of Other States
Division within the Industry
The Settlement
Closing Ceremonies
6. The Changed Context of Policymaking
New Issues and the Culture Wars
The Institutionalization of Cause Advocacy
The Growth of Government
The Nationalization and Media-ization of Politics
7. The 1997 Settlement Dies in Congress
The Tortuous Path to Defeat
Public Opinion on Tobacco Regulation
The Power of Industry Money
Obstacles on the Hill: Can Congress Act?
8. The FDA Regulations Die in Court
The Regulations and the Settlement
The Regulations in Court
The End of the FDA's Program of Tobacco Control
9. The Master Settlement Agreement of 1998
How Could the States Agree?
The Agreement
Two Kinds of Opposition
10. The Aftermath of the MSA
The Upstarts
The States Fight Back
Battling the MSA in Court
Antitobacco Expenditures
The Tort Lawyers
The Federal Government Sues
Private Suits
Money Flows to State Governments
Tort Lawyers Earn Record Fees
11. Ordinary Politics versus Adversarial Legalism
Results: The Reduction in Smoking
The New Regime
Why Abandon Legislation?
Is Litigation Superior?
What Happened to Checks and Balances?
Will the MSA Be Repeated?
What Next for Tobacco?
Chronology of Cigarette Regulation
Index
Reviews
“Derthick has taken tobacco and used it to weave a brilliant tapestry about American politics and institutions. I used it in my federalism class, and the students loved it!”
- Mark Landy, Boston College“Derthick has produced a strong piece of work documenting an unprecedented public policy change. Up in Smoke makes it easy for students to pick up the key issues in tobacco and in the nature of how tobacco litigation opened a new realm of possible problems.”
- John M. Bruce, University of Mississippi“Important substance, historical perspective, treatment of familiar (regulation and legislation) and less familiar (litigation) policymaking processes, normative assessment without loss of balance, and straightforward presentation make Up in Smoke a wonderful book for use in courses on public policy. I found the first edition a valuable reading to support classroom discussion in both my seminar on health policy and my large survey course on public policy.”
- David L. Weimer, University of Wisconsin-Madison“I have used the first edition of Up in Smoke as the compulsory outside reading book for my government and business course. The students find it informative and interesting. It is written in a student-friendly style and contains material that generates a great deal of classroom discussion. Not all students agree with Derthick’s thesis about legislation being superior to litigation on the tobacco issue, but that is what makes the discussion so lively.”
- Robert W. Langran, Villanova University
Bio(s)
Martha A. Derthick, University of Virginia
Martha Derthick retired in 1999 from the Department of Government and
Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia, where she was the Julia Allen
Cooper Professor. She is the author of numerous books on American government,
including: Dilemmas of Scale in America's Federal Democracy (editor, 1999)
; Agency Under Stress: The Social Security Administration in American
Government (1990); The Politics of Deregulation (with Paul J. Quirk,
1985); and Policymaking for Social Security (1979), which won the
Kammerer Prize of the American Political Science Association as the best book
of the year on American public policy. Before going to the University of
Virginia, she was for twelve years a member of the Governmental Studies Program
of The Brookings Institution, and was the program's director between 1978 and
1983. She has also taught at Dartmouth College, Stanford University, Harvard
University, and Boston College.
