HOLISTIC POLICY-MAKING - NEO-LIBERALISM AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE WOMENS AND DISABILITY RIGHTS MOVEMENTS

The past several decades have seen the rise of two movements, the disa bility rights movement and the women's movement, with parallel concern s histories, organizational issues, and other attributes. This article examines the philosophies of the two movements and their significance for the policymaking process. For example, both have struggled with t he issues of difference versus equality in determining public policy; both stress the importance of considering problems to reside not in pe rsonal characteristics but in interactions with the environment. The a rticle traces these and other similarities in ways of looking at polic y problems between the women's movement and the disability movement, e xamines how these similarities reveal a fundamentally different view o f policymaking, compares this philosophy with basic tenets of the Clin ton administration, as expressed by key policymakers, and discusses wh at policy would look like if these changes occurred.