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 […]
Features
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Why the States Can’t Solve the Health Care Crisis
One of the enduring metaphors of American federalism is that states serve as laboratories for the federal government. States are the basement tinkerers that generate ideas to solve big national problems. They are the crucibles for testing the safety and efficacy of new ideas before the whole country adopts them. State leaders, the argument goes, […]
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 inEconomic Policy
Social Support for Self-Reliance: The Politics of Making Work Pay
Millions of the working poor earn less than the minimum needed for self-sufficiency. Enabling these families to achieve security is good policy—and smart politics.
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 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 inLaw and Justice
Civil Reconstruction: What to Do Without Affirmative Action
The time is approaching when we will have no alternative but to find a new road to equal opportunity in America. With the confirmation of Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court now will likely have a black justice among the majority when it votes to overturn Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the 1978 […]
Posted inBooks
Domestic Urges, Foreign Obsessions
Constructive engagement with the post-Cold War world requires both a stronger America and clearer global goals. Domestic reconstruction must be a priority—but beware isolationism.
