Liberalism is at greater risk now than at any time in recent American history. The risk is of political marginality, even irrelevance. And the reason is not just a shift in partisan control of the federal government. There has been a radical change in the relationship of ideology and power in America. Only by renewing […]
Paul Starr
Paul Starr is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the Bancroft Prize in American history, he is the author of eight books, including American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now (Yale University Press, October 2025).
Posted in15th Anniversary
Little Magazine, Big Ideas
The American Prospect began with a small circulation and great ambitions. Our aim was to rethink ideas about public policy and politics and thereby to restore plausibility and persuasiveness to American liberalism. The first issue appeared in spring 1990, a historical moment in some respects like today: Democrats had lost successive presidential elections, there was […]
Posted inArticle
The Price of a Free Society
These are times that try liberal spirits. On one side, the Bush administration has taken up the agenda of the Christian right and sought to use the power of the state to shape how Americans live and die. On the other, it is undermining many of the positive accomplishments of government, such as Social Security, […]
Posted inSpecial Report
The Price of a Free Society
By Paul Starr These are times that try liberal spirits. On one side, the Bush administration has taken up the agenda of the Christian right and sought to use the power of the state to shape how Americans live and die. On the other, it is undermining many of the positive accomplishments of government, such […]
Posted inArticle
Their Sun Also Rises
Famously, on the last day of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin pointed to an image of the sun painted on the back of George Washington’s chair and said that he finally had “the happiness to know it is a rising and not a setting sun.” Ever since then, Americans have had the same […]
Posted inColumns
Their Sun Also Rises
Famously, on the last day of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin pointed to an image of the sun painted on the back of George Washington’s chair and said that he finally had “the happiness to know it is a rising and not a setting sun.” Ever since then, Americans have had the same […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
The Liberal Uses of Power
It is a shame there will never be a debate about foreign policy between the George W. Bush who ran for president in 2000 and the one who now occupies the office. As a candidate five years ago, Bush said that the United States should act as a “humble nation” toward the rest of the […]
Posted inSpecial Report
Why We Need Social Security
For nearly three-quarters of a century, Americans have taken Social Security for granted. Now we had better learn how it works, what it has done, and what the true facts are regarding its future — or else we are going to lose it. Superficially, Social Security resembles traditional employer pensions: Americans pay into the system […]
Posted inArticle
Why We Need Social Security
For nearly three-quarters of a century, Americans have taken Social Security for granted. Now we had better learn how it works, what it has done, and what the true facts are regarding its future — or else we are going to lose it. Superficially, Social Security resembles traditional employer pensions: Americans pay into the system […]
Posted inArticle
Security Flaws
Republican plans to privatize social security raise two different security questions. One is the impact on the retirement security of workers if they become dependent on the stock market for their basic livelihood in old age. The other concerns the nation’s security if, as news reports indicate, the Republicans decide that rather than raise taxes, […]