Question

Which of the following were among the policies advocated by New Democrats, including presidential candidate Bill Clinton?

- streamlining government bureaucracy

- expanding policies earlier advocated by FDR and LBJ

- abolishing the death penalty

- supporting women's rights and gay rights

Answer 1

- streamlining government bureaucracy
- supporting women’s rights and gay rights

Arkansas governor Bill Clinton sensed an opportunity in the spiraling federal deficit under the Republican administrations and the slow pace of economic recovery. As a leading member of a group of younger politicians known as New Democrats, Clinton advocated centrist policies that rejected the expansive government that Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson had championed. Specifically, the New Democrats combined liberal cultural policies, such as women's and gay rights, with certain conservative economic positions, including reducing the federal deficit and streamlining government bureaucracy. New Democrats also took a generally conservative approach to criminal justice, supporting the death penaltv and mandatorv minimum sentences for drug, property, and violent crimes.