The Skill Factor in Politics

Eugene Bardach’s The Skill Factor in Politics: Repealing the Mental Commitment Laws in California uses the 1965–67 overhaul of California’s involuntary commitment system to explore what political skill actually is—and how it determines outcomes. Tracking a reform coalition that most observers initially rated as long-shots (and briefly wrote off for dead) before it ultimately prevailed, Bardach argues that standard political science couldn’t explain the win because it lacked a workable theory of “skill.” Rather than treating skill as a personality trait, he defines it as a quality of action in problem-solving—timely, efficient, inventive maneuvers tailored to the structure of a policy contest. His evidence comes from close observation of the commitment reform and four comparative cases in California mental health politics (an interdepartmental turf struggle, an internal DMH controversy, a licensing fight over psychotherapy, and a state-hospital budget battle), supplemented by interviews, documents, and a survey of the “attentive public.”

From these cases Bardach sketches a pragmatic model of policy entrepreneurship. Success equals authorization by relevant authorities, which depends on assembling “enough” support from strategically weighted interests. The entrepreneur’s four core problems are: (1) designing proposals and plausible alternatives that can attract the right mix of interests; (2) recruiting and activating a coalition with resources (persuasion, information, venues, procedural leverage) to build that support; (3) defending and countering opposition through timing, sabotage, and agenda control; and (4) sustaining organizational capacity—managing attention, sequencing moves, and adapting doctrine as events unfold. Bardach’s aim isn’t to rank skill above other forces, but to make it visible and teachable as craft. He closes by urging broader diffusion of these skills—among analysts, citizen-advocates, and officials—arguing that representative institutions work best when more participants can map the field, diagnose leverage points, and execute creative, well-timed political action.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972.