My topic is political feasibility, understood both in its general sense and more
particularly, as shaped by the interests of individuals within a society and the
distribution of power among them. I divide my discussion into four sections: some
broad reXections on the concept of political feasibility; a historical/analytical examination
of shifting conceptions of power; a exploration of the role of organized
interests within the institutional and cultural context of US politics; and Wnally, a
glance at the collapse of President Clinton’s proposal for universal heath care—as a
case study of the boundaries of the possible.