Citizen Leadership

Media coverage tends to emphasize presidential politics, but the real center of governmental action these days is on Capitol Hill. The present Congress already has produced more legislative and attitudinal change than any Congress in a quarter of a century. Moreover, the record shows that members of the Republican majority did something their critics cannot honestly deny: they kept their Read More ›

Former Democratic Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado, who wants to be the presidential nominee of the Reform Party, has found out from Ross Perot that just because someone advocates fair campaign competition in theory doesn’t mean that he supports it in practice. In the hands of Perot, as in many others’ these days, the slogan of “reform” is nothing other Read More ›

It was way back in the fall of 1961, in Sever Hall, Harvard Yard, and I was taking notes in a class on urban politics taught by Professor Edward Banfield. Tall, distinguished looking, yet approachable, he resembled an academic Gregory Peck. Earlier, at the University of Chicago, the good professor had been an intimate observer of the first Mayor Richard Read More ›

Steve Murphy loved his Miami-based work as an economic development consultant specializing in Latin America, but he found he could not explain it to young people. Many of the ones he met said they wanted to start their own businesses, but “when I ask where they plan to get their startup capital, they just shrug their shoulders. Motivation and knowledge Read More ›

Washington Sen. Slade Gorton received headline attention recently when he announced that he would not oppose extension of “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) trading status for China this year. He thereby helped avoid an embarrassing vote in the Senate at a time when Boeing has major Chinese contracts pending and Microsoft has just reached a new agreement on intellectual property rights. Read More ›

Recently I described the effort of Sam Beard, author of “Restoring Hope in America,” to rescue the Social Security system from bankruptcy and provide a real economic future for the American worker. Now touring the United States is another crusader with the nearly identical cause, José Piñera. The main difference between the two is that Beard, head of the Jefferson Read More ›

The front page story in the Vancouver Sun last weekend was from Seattle, where British Columbians were told that Sonics excitement revealed an “America…where sports become a life’s obsession.” Interviewing–get this–“Milt” and “Merle” from Texas, the reporter had these two urban cowboys hanging onto the bar at F. X. McRory’s restaurant in Pioneer Square and speaking for the rest of Read More ›

Turf battles and budget cuts always stir anxieties in the military, but recent signs of damaged morale in the officer corps suggest worrisome trouble from more unusual sources. At some point the fighting ability of the military–its reason for existence–may be impaired. Before that happens, Congress should investigate the causes of the recent spate of firings, resignations, lawsuits, charges of Read More ›

This summer the Congress is expected, finally, to take up the subject of campaign finance reform. If you believe the interpretation put upon this issue by most of the media and the permanent, self-designated “reform” lobby, the only reason to oppose the proposals being made is the self-interest of politicians and their major backers. But this simplistic view increasingly is Read More ›

How are we going to pay for it all? Isn’t there any way to lower the costs? These are the plaintive cries of taxpayers around the country as their local and state elected officials try to cajole them into supporting a growing list of infrastructure projects. But even as the list grows, taxpayer tolerance for big ticket public works is Read More ›

During the past year you have heard all about it: Americans no longer are joining community groups to the extent they did in the good old days. In the widely quoted phrase of Harvard’s Robert Putnam, people are “bowling alone” instead of joining bowling leagues, and dropping out of other social organizations as well. It shows that we’re a society Read More ›

We probably all know that costs of entitlements are the main source of federal budget deficits, and the problem is destined to get dangerously worse as the Baby Boom generation ages. We all know, too, that ordinary families–especially the young–are having a hard time saving independently for their old age. And, we all know that elderly voters, as a group, Read More ›