Article
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. […]
When Patients Go To Market: The Workings of Managed Competition
A fter a generation of deadlock, there is finally a broad consensus that the health system is broken, and a rare political opportunity to fix it. The present system manages to be simultaneously inflationalry, arbitrary, cumbersome for providers, and unreliable for consumers. But despite the opportunity for reform, we are on the verge of a […]
Mangled Competition
Despite a once-in-a-generation opportunity, the Clintons are poised to slam the door on single payer national health insurance and embrace a corporate welfare approach with the oxymoronic name: “Managed Competition.” Managed Competition would: Use tax penalties to push all but the wealthy into stripped down, basic group health plans. Deprive most patients of the right […]
The Myth of Public School Failure
Public schools are actually performing remarkably well. What they need is not radical reform but more support.
Privatization in Eastern Europe: The Tunnel at the End of the Light
I n the former Soviet empire, the collapse of Communism created an opportunity for the victims of one failed utopian ideology to find another. The evaporating Soviet system left an ideological vacuum that was quickly filled as legions of Western advisers arrived to help translate the goals of political democracy and a market economy into […]
What Works: Applying What We Already Know About Successful Social Policy
Three decades of anti-poverty policy have shed much light on the best strategies for helping families.
Damaged Goods: Before Reinventing Government, Clinton Needs to Repair It
T he debris of Reaganism is scattered across Bill Clinton’s domestic agenda: Environmentalism may be slow to take hold at the Interior Department because friends of industry have “burrowed in” to the bureaucracy. Sound industrial policy will call for better information than the Commerce Department and Federal Trade Commission have to offer. Crafting welfare reform […]
Beyond Shock Therapy: Why Eastern Europe’s Recovery Starts in Washington
Laissez faire was planned. —Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation,1944 T he collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe demonstrated the failure of a command economy. The subsequent crash in output and employment induced by “shock therapy” has suggested the limits of laissez faire. Rather than replace the excesses of communism with excesses of capitalism, it is […]
Crediting the Voters: A New Beginning for Campaign Finance
W hen Americans register to vote, they should be issued a credit card by a special public company– call it the Patriot card and color it red, white, and blue. This card will become the basis of campaign finance. Suppose each voter’s card were automatically credited with a $10 balance for the 1996 presidential election. […]
