Politics of Empowerment

David Pettinicchio has written Politics of Empowerment: Disability Rights and the Cycle of American Policy Reform (Stanford University Press, 2019). He is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto.

In Politics of Empowerment, David Pettinicchio offers a history of the political development of disability rights in the United States. Since the 1920s, policy makers have framed and re-framed the obligations of the federal government to those with disabilities. Over time, disability rights emerged, establishing a set of guarantees for public accommodations. At the same time, disability policies were challenged as too expensive and unfeasible, a new threat to the disability community. Pettinicchio follows these ebbs and flows by integrating sociological and political science theories on policy change, social movements, and interest groups.