When I wrote “The Choice In Kosovo” in early May, the failure of the United States and NATO to make a credible threat of a ground invasion seemed likely to result in a diplomatic settlement that fell far short of the legitimate aims of the war. A month later, these concerns have only partially been […]
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 inMoney, Politics, and Power
An Emerging Democratic Majority
The 1994 election devastated the self-confidence of the Democratic Party, and 1996 only partially restored it. After narrowly escaping the “Republican revolution,” many Democrats have lowered their expectations and become resigned to the prospect of center-right government. And now President Clinton’s budget and tax deal with the Republicans in Congress has left his own party without […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Who Owns the Future?
They claim to be riding a wave of historical change. The wave is global in its reach and unstoppable in its force. Those who get in the way are representatives of an old, obsolete order; they may put up a fight, but they will be beaten in the inevitable transformation. So Newt Gingrich and other […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
What Happened to Health Care Reform?
Republicans killed it. The White House strategy misfired. Reformers couldn’t unite. The center failed. And the moment was lost.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
The Disengaged
David Hackett Fischer’s new book, Paul Revere’s Ride, is a cautionary tale for Democrats who expect their heroes to produce results overnight. The story of Paul Revere has come down to us as a tale of individual daring. In our national memory, he rides through the night single-handedly spreading the alarm about the redcoats to […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Undertow
As the 1990s began, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. argued that America was due for a new era of affirmative government in keeping with the cycle of liberal and conservative periods that runs through our history. Uncannily, Bill Clinton’s election came right on schedule, roughly 90 years after Theodore Roosevelt became president, 60 years after Franklin Roosevelt, […]
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
Seductions of Sim: Policy as a Simulation Game
For those who always thought public policy was a game anyone could play, it finally is. But beware of what the game assumes.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Delivering Health Reform
Can the Clintons find the votes for health care reform without wrecking the logic of universal coverage, cost-control, and managed competition?
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Detoxifying the Debate
A s an art form, caricature is fun. The caricature of ideas, however, does not have the same appeal. And when the caricaturists seek to arouse fears and anxieties by distorting unfamiliar ideas into misshapen and threatening images of insidious evil and betrayal, they do public debate and even their own case a great disservice. […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Healthy Compromise: Universal Coverage and Managed Competition Under a Cap
A promising strategy emerges to break the impasse.