Making Rights Real

Activists, Bureaucrats, and the Creation of the Legalistic State

Charles R. Epp

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780226211657, 9780226211640
• eBook ISBN: 9780226211664
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Civil Rights in Law
• Index: Politics & International Relations

It's a common complaint: the United States is overrun by rules and procedures that shackle professional judgment, have no valid purpose, and serve only to appease courts and lawyers. Charles R. Epp argues, however, that few Americans would want to return to an era without these legalistic policies, which in the 1970s helped bring recalcitrant bureaucracies into line with a growing national commitment to civil rights and individual dignity. 

Focusing on three disparate policy areas—workplace sexual harassment, playground safety, and police brutality in both the United States and the United Kingdom—Epp explains how activists and professionals used legal liability, lawsuit-generated publicity, and innovative managerial ideas to pursue the implementation of new rights. Together, these strategies resulted in frameworks designed to make institutions accountable through intricate rules, employee training, and managerial oversight. Explaining how these practices became ubiquitous across bureaucratic organizations, Epp casts today's legalistic state in an entirely new light.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Theory: The Fertile Fear of Liability
• 3 The Problem with Policing
• 4 Liability’s Triumph
• 5 Policing’s Epiphany
• 6 Spreading the Word: Variations among Police Departments
• 7 Tort Liability and Police Reform in Britain
• 8 Sexual Harassment
• 9 Playground Safety
• 10 Conclusion
• Methodological Appendix
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index