As a state legislator in Massachusetts since 1985, I have seen the best and worst of state health policy-making. In 1988 the Massachusetts Legislature approved a measure intended to guarantee health insurance to all 600,000 uninsured state residents. The early steps under the law, covering students, the unemployed, and disabled adults and children, were preludes […]
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Posted inCivil Rights in America
A Lost Political Generation?
Meet the twenty-something generation: socially idealistic, politically cynical, economically worried, and longing for a leader worthy of respect.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Flexibility Trap: The Proliferation of Marginal Jobs
Temporary and part-time jobs may be penny-wise for employers, but pound-foolish for the economy.
Posted inLaw and Justice
Race, Liberalism, and Affirmative Action
In our Winter issue, Paul Starr argued that because the Supreme Court, with its changed membership, is now likely to overturn earlier decisions upholding affirmative action, liberals need to find “a new road to equal opportunity in America.” He urged a two-pronged approach: policies to expand opportunity and security for low- to middle-income Americans of […]
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
Democratizing the Data Banks: Getting Government Online
The federal government’s databases may soon be only an inexpensive telephone call away.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Diversity at Berkeley: Demagoguery or Demography?
The case for Cal’s admissions policy, designed to mirror the state’s population.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Pressure Elite: Inside the Narrow World of Advocacy Group Politics
Today’s advocacy groups are remotely democratic—all too remotely.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Bringing Fathers Back In: The Child Support Assurance Strategy
Holding absent fathers financially accountable, while providing a minimum assured benefit for child support, could reduce child poverty significantly and help millions of single mothers move out of dependency.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Myth of a Savings Shortage
A precipitous decline in saving during the 1980s? A closer look shows it isn’t so.