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Vol. 8 No. 30January 1997
Features
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Who Governs Globalism?
For at least a generation the U.S. has propped up the global economy by absorbing the world's surplus of goods. That's not good for the U.S. or its trading partners. -
Breaching the Great Wall
China's neomercantalism harms America's economic interests. A mutually beneficial relationship will take more assertive trade policies. -
Why Boomers Don't Spell Bust
We could afford the dependent baby boomer generation once--during its childhood. We can do it again when the boomers retire. -
Is There a Social Security Crisis?
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Dead Center
The centrist politics of the election produced a shrunken electorate and mandate. Are there fresh sources of progressive energy at the grass roots? -
Below the Beltway: Goo-Goos Versus Populists
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How Low Can You Go?
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Clean Elections, How To
Public frustration with political influence peddling hasn't been this high since Watergate, and thanks to Maine we finally have an example of how to do reform right. -
Of Our Time: The Clinton Presidency, Take Three
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Welfare as We Might Know It
Why I resigned in protest over President Clinton's signing of welfare reform--and what can still be done to repair it. -
State of the Debate: Tough Guys
William Bennett, John DiIulio, and John Walters say it's time liberals faced the hard facts about crime. Maybe they should heed their own advice. -
When Preferences Disappear
Proposition 209 signals the end of gender and racial favoritism in California, but it may also be the beginning of affirmative action by other means. -
State of the Debate: Quayle Hunting
Dan and Marilyn Quayle send--uh, try to send--a message on family values. -
Are Black Diplomas Worth Less?
Relative to whites, minorities have made impressive gains in education attainment. Why are they still falling behind economically? -
Behind the Numbers: The Misdiagnosis of Eurosclerosis
Champions of the U.S. economic system say that Europe's generous social protections cause high unemployment. But it's the global economy that's driving up joblessness in Europe--just as it increases income inequality in the United States. -
The New China Lobby
Who bought American indulgence of China? Surprise--multinational corporations that fly the U.S. flag.
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Vol. 7 No. 29November 1996
Features
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Multimedia and Multiple Intelligences
New multimedia technology could do a lot for children if educators recognize diverse intelligences that schools traditionally haven't favored. -
Devil in the Details
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Liberty, Community, and the National Idea
Is a renewed emphasis on the value of community the answer to our political woes? Not if it's defined in purely local terms. -
Of Our Time: A Liberal Dunkirk?
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Will Class Trump Gender?: The New Assault on Feminism
"Goodbye, feminism," say some critics who insist that women can prosper as rugged individualists. Funny thing, the new antifeminists sound a lot like the old laissez-faire conservatives. -
How Low Can You Go?
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A Secure System
A former commissioner of Social Security explains how to save it. -
The Other Edmund Wilson
Today there is no shortage of writing about literature or of literature about writing. But there used to be writing that was about both. -
The Aging Opportunity: America's Elderly as a Civic Resource
The aging of American society is almost always seen as a problem, but the elderly may be our only growing natural resource -- provided we create new ways to mobilize their civic energies. -
Conceding Success
Several recent studies show that two major undertakings of progressive government -- environmental regulation and public education -- have been far more successful than widely believed. -
The Balanced Budget Trap
Absolute budget balance has become orthodoxy; a constitutional amendment to enforce it may pass Congress even if Democrats win the elections. But look at the costs. -
Yes, Union
Labor's message to liberals: Rumors of our irrelevance have been much exaggerated. -
The Great Social Security Scare
Advocates of privatization are using the financial stress of the baby boomers' retirement to undo the advances that Social Security has brought. Relieving the financial pressures, however, has become a phony excuse for privatization. -
Eyes on the Street: Community Policing in Chicago
It's now the favorite remedy for urban crime, but a visit to the front lines in Chicago suggests how hard it is to make community policing work. -
Of Economists and Liberals
A reply to Robert Kuttner, "Peddling Krugman," September-October 1996.
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Vol. 7 No. 28September 1996
Features
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Is God a Republican?: Why Politics Is Dangerous for Religion
The Christian Coalition has made a dangerous gamble by associating faith with the Republican Party. If God blesses us only as Republicans or Democrats, both politics and religion are in trouble. -
How Low Can You Go?
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Delivering for Young Families: The Resonance of the GI Bill
The problem isn't that old folks get too much money from government -- it's that young families get too little. Recalling the GI Bill and the politics of generational solidarity. -
Devil in the Details
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Fighting the Establishment (Clause)
The Rutherford Institute portrays itself as merely interested in defending the rights of religious Americans. A closer look reveals a more sweeping and questionable agenda. -
Damage Report
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Motor Voter or Motivated Voter?
The Motor Voter law was supposed to dramatically increase turnout and give marginalized groups more voice in politics. Unfortunately, getting these groups to register doesn't do any good if you don't give them reason to vote. -
Who Won the Cold War?
Is it high time for liberals to apologize to the anticommunist right, which correctly gauged the red menace from the start? Sorry, the credit belongs to a brave band of liberal cold warriors beginning with George Kennan. -
Is God a Republican?: Why Politics Is Dangerous for Religion
The Christian Coalition has made a dangerous gamble by associating faith with the Republican Party. If God blesses us only as Republicans or Democrats, both politics and religion are in trouble. -
State of the Debate: Peddling Krugman
Paul Krugman criticizes supporters of government activism as nothing but policy peddlers and economic illiterates, but describes himself as a liberal. What is MIT's prodigy really up to? -
Back from the Dead: Neoprogressivism in the '90s
The conservative revolution turned out to be less than a mandate. Can the various factions that call themselves progressive get behind a common vision? -
Starting Small, Thinking Big
Society needs to help the very young, long before formal schooling begins, or the battle for the next generation will be lost. -
Private Heroism and Public Purpose
Working- and middle-class voters remain economically anxious. But in the absence of a convincing narrative that connects to their lives, many are concluding from their condition that the only remedy is rugged individualism. -
Take the Initiative, Please: Referendum Madness in California
Ballot initiatives were supposed to make government more responsive to the people. In California, a series of referenda has had just the opposite effect. -
On the Politics of Virtue
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Vol. 7 No. 27July 1996
Features
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Drift or Mandate?: The 1996 Elections
The voters' decision in November will determine whether the late 1990s usher in America's "fourth Republic." -
The Starbucks Solution: Can Voluntary Codes Raise Global Living Standards
Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and Levi Strauss say they will do the right thing all over the world. That's better than if they made no commitment, but it may not be much. -
Social Compact, Version 2.0
Responsible companies promise to uphold higher values. Yet the new economy makes it harder than ever for companies to take on a broader social role -- that's why we invented government. -
Children in the Digital Age
There's trouble in Cyber City, and pornography is the least of it. -
Return of the Native
Isolationism is rising among Republicans along with antigovernment fervor. Is Bob Dole -- as Newt Gingrich says -- another Bob Taft? -
Back to Class
Are Americans really just unrealistic whiners? -
How Low Can You Go?
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The Economics of Despair
Young adults today earn half of what they would have made 20 years ago. Herewith an explanation, and a prescription, by three labor economists. -
Was Welfare Reform Worthwhile?
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Social Change One on One: The New Mentoring Movement
The evidence is in: Mentoring kids from single-parent families has dramatic benefits. So why aren't we doing more of it? -
Of Our Time: Taking Care of Business
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Computer Clubhouses in the Inner City: Access Is Not Enough
A new kind of learning community shows how children from any neighborhood can become "technologically fluent." -
Below the Beltway
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Vol. 7 No. 26May 1996
Features
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"F" Is for Fizzle: The Faltering School Privatization Movement
Entrepreneurs promised they could rescue public schools and turn a profit too. Reality intruded. -
Welfare Reform as I Knew It: When Bad Things Happen to Good Policies
"I'll look forward to reading your book on why it failed this time," Senator Moynihan told me on my first visit as cochair of the Clinton working group on welfare reform. Herewith, the first installment. -
Saving Their Assets: How to Stop Plunder at Blue Cross and Other Nonprofits
Huge nonprofit corporations are now being converted to for-profit companies, to the immense benefit of corporate insiders. But they can't take charitable assets with them. A victory in California shows what the public should insist upon. -
The Fleece Police
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Straight From the Sixties: What Conservatives Owe the Decade They Hate
Apocalyptic intemperateness, paranoia, a loathing of compromise, a demonization of the enemy -- where have we run into this before? -
Unsolved Mysteries: The Tocqueville Files II
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Goldwater's Glitter
Conservatives hail Barry Goldwater as a forerunner; liberals appreciate his belated moderation. But Goldwater wasn't the paragon a new biography makes him out to be. -
Rewarding Work: Feasible Antipoverty Policy
A higher minimum wage and the earned income tax credit fit like puzzle pieces, each compensating for the other's flaws. Together they are our best bet to fight poverty. -
Unsolved Mysteries: The Tocqueville Files II
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Social Security on the Table
Must we destroy Social Security in order to save it? -
Toward a More Perfect Union: New Labor's Hard Road
The labor movement has new life, but faces immense obstacles. Here's what it can accomplish. -
Of Our Time: After Solidarity
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Connecting with E.M. Forster
A futuristic fantasy from early in this century offers us a hellish version of life on the Internet. -
The Corrosive Politics of Virtue
Decrying moral failure is an old American tradition that goes back to the Puritans. But the moral diagnosis is wrong -- and it brings pernicious political consequences. -
Cooked to Order
When two economists showed that a higher minimum wage would have little adverse effect on jobs, did the fast food industry try to spike the data and poison their reputations? -
Devil in the Details
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The Biggest Deal: Lobbying to Take Social Security Private
Privatizing Social Security would create an enormous financial bonanza. So guess who's spending millions to change public perceptions and national policy. -
Unsolved Mysteries: The Tocqueville Files II
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