Les intimes ambitions de George W. Bush : la droite conservatrice et les « politiques de moralité »

Résumé 0

With George W. Bush’s arrival in the White House, a large number of spokespersons from the conservative right-wing of the Republican party have comfortably settled down into some key positions of the Executive branch (notably, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health and Human Services). In the realm of what political scientist Christopher Mooney calls “morality politics”, their agenda is crystal clear: their foremost goal is “to elevate” the status of the fœtus to that of a person. Within the institutional context of the federal system, to what extent will George W. Bush and his advocates succeed in achiev-ing this agenda? Will the negative impact on reproductive rights be as disastrous as many feminist and civil rights groups say it may be? Who truly will bear the brunt of new appointments to the Supreme Court and across the federal district and appeals courts? In its attempt to answer these questions, this article underlines those areas where George W. Bush and the conservative right-wing’s ambitions will likely be fulfilled, and where they will confront the limits of the executive power in its negotiations with Congress and the States.