Cover -- Part I. Framework -- 1. The Sources of Big Government: A Critical Survey of Hypotheses -- Explanations of the Growth of Government -- Modernization -- Public Goods -- The Welfare State -- Political Redistribution -- Ideology -- Crisis -- Conclusions -- 2. How much has Government Grown?: Conventional Measures and an Alternative View -- Conventional Measures of the Growth of Government -- The Essence of Big Government: An Alternative View -- Ratchets: Conventional Measures versus Fundamentals -- Conclusions -- 3. On Ideology as an Analytical Concept in the Study of Political Economy -- What is Ideology? -- Ideology and Political Action -- Ideology in Analysis -- Ideology and Rhetoric -- Ideology: Exogenous or Endogenous? -- Conclusions -- 4. Crisis, Bigger Government, and Ideological Change: Toward an Understanding of the Ratchet -- A Schematic View of the Problem -- Why Stage II?: A Cost-Concealment Hypothesis -- Why Stage IV?: A (Partial) Hypothesis on Ideological Change -- Recapitulation: Why the Ratchet? -- The Task Ahead -- Part II. History -- 5. Crisis under the Old Regime, 1893-1896 -- Creative Destruction Ideologically Sustained, 1865-1893 -- Depression and Social Unrest, 1893-1896 -- Saving the Gold Standard -- Maintaining Law and Order in the Labor Market -- Striking Down the Income Tax -- Conclusions -- 6. The Progressive Era: A Bridge to Modern Times -- Economic Development and Political Change, 1898-1916 -- The Ideological Winds Shift -- End and Beginning: The Railroad Labor Troubles, 1916-1917 -- Conclusions -- 7. The Political Economy of War, 1916-1918 -- Neutral Prosperity and the Shipping Crisis -- The Preparedness Controversy and New Governmental Powers -- War and Conscription -- Manipulating the Market Economy: The Major Agencies -- Labor Problems and the Railroad Takeover.

Supreme Court Rulings on War Measures -- Legacies, Institutional and Ideological -- Conclusions -- 8. The Great Depression: "An Emergency More Serious Than War" -- Economic Rise and fall, 1922-1933 -- What did Hoover Do? -- Interregnum of Despair -- Emergency, Emergency! -- Planting the First New Deal: The Hundred Days -- Cultivating and Pruning the First New Deal: The Supreme Court -- Legacies, Institutional and Ideological -- Conclusions -- 9. The Political Economy of War, 1940-1945 -- De Jure Neutrality, De Facto Belligerency, 1939-1941 -- More Powers and Price Controls -- The Armed Forces and the Economy -- Work or Fight -- The Supreme Court also Goes to War -- Legacies, Institutional and Ideological -- Conclusions -- 10. Crisis and Leviathan: From World War II to the 1980s -- The Mixed Economy: March into Socialism or Fascism? -- Crisis and Leviathan: The Recent Episodes -- Conclusions -- 11. Retrospect and Prospect -- Retrospect -- Prospect -- Appendix to Chapter 2 -- Appendix to Chapter 9 -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- Index -- Back Cover.