Beth Simone Noveck— In recent decades, especially since Reagan and Thatcher, some scholars and practitioners have argued that the way to fix government is to copy the techniques of the private sector, especially the use of more data to deliver better performance. In line with rising interest in private-sector solutions
Donald L. Horowitz— Suppose you were advising a constitutional assembly chosen to produce a new constitution for a troubled country. Most constitutions are created because some trouble has occurred: the fall of an authoritarian regime, a civil war, mass discontent with the performance of a government. There is a good
Patrick J. Deneen— A political philosophy conceived some 500 years ago, and put into effect at the birth of the United States nearly 250 years later, was a wager that political society could be grounded on a different footing. It conceived humans as rights-bearing individuals who could fashion and pursue
Josh Chafetz— It’s hard to keep track of all of the ongoing investigations into the Trump campaign and administration. At the very least, we know of inquiries by special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI under the auspices of the Justice Department and by four separate congressional committees: the House
Benjamin Ginsberg— For most of the nineteenth century, the presidency was a weak institution. In unusual circumstances, a Jefferson, a Jackson, or a Lincoln might exercise extraordinary power, but most presidents held little influence over the congressional barons or provincial chieftains who actually steered the government. The president’s job was
Ian Shapiro— Robert Dahl died on February 5, 2014 at the age of ninety-eight. He might well have been the most important political scientist of the last century, and he was certainly one of its preeminent social scientists. In many ways, Dahl created the field of modern political science, understood
Boston and New York are entering new eras in their respective histories. Boston’s Mayor Tom Menino is ending his 20-year period in office while Michael Bloomberg is stepping down after serving the city of New York for 12 years. More than ever before, mayoral elections are being closely watched by
Tuesday was a major event for midterm primary elections; eleven were held that day, and the results revealed a great deal about the current state of partisan and electoral politics. There were high-profile candidates stepping into political races for the first time, as well as high-profile incumbents facing primary challenges.
Alan Wolfe, Professor of Political Science at Boston College and author of the forthcoming Does American Democracy Still Work? (Yale University Press; available September 4, 2006), has written the cover story for the July/August issue of Washington Monthly, entitled “Why Conservatives Can’t Govern.” The article, which has attracted significant attention