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Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good
(Review)
Author/s: Lynn Scarlett by Richard Epstein, Reading, Mass.: Perseus Books, 368 pages.
These days, fashionable environmentalists sound like neoclassical economists. They chatter about the need to "internalize externalities," pressing for eco-taxes on greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide emissions, wasteful packaging, noise, fumes, mine tailings, chemical consumption, and any other perceived "bad" that captures their attention. This notion of externalities as a form of "market failure" opens up endless possibilities for state intervention
Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good |
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Linking Public Administration to Comparative Politics
PS: Political Science & Politics, Sept, 2000. Author/s: Herbert H. Werlin
Imagine students of comparative politics giving their professors the following examination questions:
- Why is it that autocratic governments are sometimes more effective in promoting development than their more democratic counterparts?
- Why is it that More Developed Countries (MDCs) are both more centralized and more decentralized than Less Developed Countries (LDCs)?
- Why is it that corruption is devastating for poor countries, but not rich countries?
- What explains the capacity of countries to change their culture?
- Why is economic globalization good for the development of some countries, but not for others?
Judging by a survey of recent comparative politics textbooks, one group of professors might begin their answers with a description of political systems (authoritarian, totalitarian, democratic, single-party, multiparty, parliamentarian, presidential, federal, military, etc.); another would introduce a variety of concepts (conflict, choice, structure, function, culture, participation, attitudes, values, processes, opinions, rationality, etc.). I believe the professors in both groups would fail to provide satisfactory answers because they would neglect public administration.
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Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World
Politics matter for human development. Reducing poverty depends as much on whether poor people have political power as on their opportunities for economic progress. Democracy has proven to be the system of governance most capable of mediating and preventing conflict and of securing and sustaining well-being. By expanding people's choices about how and by whom they are governed, democracy brings principles of participation and accountability to the process of human development.
http://www.undp.org/hdr2002/ |
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Solving the New Inequality
Richard B. Freeman
Over the past two decades, income inequality in the United States has massively increased. This jump owes to the unprecedentedly abysmal earnings experience of low-paid Americans, income stagnation covering about 80 percent of all families, and an increase in upper-end incomes. The rise in inequality-greater than in most other developed countries-has reversed the equalization in income and wealth we experienced between 1945 and 1970. The United States has now cemented its traditional position as the leader in inequality among advanced countries.
http://bostonreview.mit.edu/BR21.6/freeman.html |
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Equality and Responsibility
John E. Roemer
International political events of the last fifteen years indicate deep popular skepticism about the egalitarianism of the welfare state: the latest dramatic example, for Americans, may be the Republican sweep in the recent congressional elections. The reasons for this skepticism are complex, but they are partly philosophical. Many people associate egalitarianism, and the policies of the welfare state in particular, with a rejection of individual responsibility. They accuse the modern welfare state of being a "Nanny State," which seeks to take care of citizens -- ministering to their needs, indemnifying them against all major harms, and relieving them of any personal responsibility to make their lives go well.
In this essay I aim to answer this charge. I will present a form of egalitarianism founded on the idea of equality of opportunity -- the prevailing conception of social justice in western liberal democracies.
http://bostonreview.mit.edu/BR20.2/roemer.html |
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What is PI
By Daniel Bell & Irving Kristol
The aim of The Public Interest is at once modest and presumptuous. It is to help all of us, when we discuss issues of public policy, to know a little better what we are talking about-and preferably in time to make such knowledge effective.
http://www.thepublicinterest.com/ |
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On Gender
By James Q. Wilson
Nature has played a cruel trick on humankind. It has made males essential for reproduction but next to useless for nurturance. Yet if children are to do more than survive, they must be part of a community. For such a complex social organization to develop, men must be induced to provide resources and act cooperatively. Living in a community requires of them sympathy, prudence, and above all, commitment.
http://www.thepublicinterest.com/ |
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Administrative Procedures and Political Control of The Bureaucracy
Author/s: Steven J. Balla. Sept, 1998
Delegation of policymaking authority from elected officials to unelected bureaucrats is a fact of contemporary American politics. It does not, however, necessarily imply abdication, as officeholders possess instruments that potentially limit bureaucratic discretion. Presidents, for example, fill many high-level agency posts with appointees whose preferences closely resemble those of the chief executive. Members of Congress regularly conduct oversight hearings, which are proceedings designed to monitor and, if necessary, redirect agency activity. The presence of these instruments raises a question of considerable importance for the operation of American democracy: To what extent do different types of instruments facilitate political control of the bureaucracy?
Administrative Procedures and Political Control of The Bureaucracy |
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Philosophy in the public interest: An interview with Martha C. Nussbaum
(Interview) Author/s: Margaret A. Miller, Jan-Feb, 2002
Editor's note: Martha C. Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, is certainly one of the most visible and prominent philosop hers in America, with publications, honors, and teaching positions too numerous to list (a summary of her accomplishments can be found at www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/nussbaum). Her reputation is not only due to her extraordinary scholarly productivity--it is also the consequence of her intellectual range, eloquence, elegance of mind, and willingness to speak to audiences beyond a small group of professional philosophers on topics of public importance. Although these traits make her a model few could hope to emulate, her career does demonstrate how scholarship can make a significant contribution to the social good. In an e-mail interview conducted by Change executive editor Margaret A. Miller, Nussbaum discusses her career as a political philosopher.
Philosophy in the public interest: An interview with Martha C. Nussbaum |
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Politics, Religion & The Public Good: An Interview With Philosopher John Rawls
(Interview) Author/s: Bernard G. Prusak: Sept 25, 1998
John Rawls is widely recognized as the most important American political philosopher since the mid-century. His book A Theory of Justice (Harvard University Press, 1971) redefined its discipline and, in so doing, aroused controversy on every side. Partly in response to criticism that his liberal conception of the individual all but ignored ideas of the self rooted in religious attachments, Rawls's following work and book, Political Liberalism (Columbia University Press, 1993; revised, 1996), have turned to the problem of pluralism in liberal constitutional democracies.
Politics, Religion & The Public Good: An Interview With Philosopher John Rawls |
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Public Administration in the Public Interest: Thoughts About Public Administration Post September 11, 2001
by Paula D. Gordon, September 12, 2002
A new approach to public administration and governance may well arise from the ashes of the attacks of September 11, 2001. This new approach may be one that nurtures intrinsic values identical to those that were present at the founding of America. This new approach to public administration may well be one that reflects a deepened concern for the public good and for acting in the public interest. In the present context, I would define "acting in the public interest" as "acting in such a way as to nurture and maximize the basic values of life, health, individual and societal freedom, and caring and concern."
Public Administration in the Public Interest: |
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The Public Interest
Since 1965, the year of our inaugural issue, The Public Interest has been the magazine to read on politics and culture, sought after by journalists, referenced by scholars, and consulted by policy makers.
http://www.thepublicinterest.com/ |
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Public Interest Institute
600 North Jackson Street, Mt. Pleasant, IA 52641-1328
319-385-3462
Public Interest Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan, public policy research organization located on the campus of Iowa Wesleyan College in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. The Institute promotes the importance of a free-enterprise economic system and limited government in society based upon individual freedom and liberty.
http://www.limitedgovernment.org/index.html |
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