The July/August issue of Public Administration Review carries my lengthy review of Beth Simone Noveck’s Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful (Brookings Institution Press, 2009). Noveck is the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer and Director—the person heading the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative. In my review,...
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Mark Lilla has an article in the April 29, 2010 issue of the New York Review of Books titled “Tea Party Jacobins.” It is typical Lilla—very well written, philosophical, and witty. By Lilla’s take, the Tea Party movement is worth taking seriously. It is a manifestation of deeper social and psychological changes that the...
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The more difficult times are, the more intense the demand for simple solutions. This seems to be the case for both individuals and groups, be they corporations, religions, or nations. The February 25, 2010 issue of the New York Review of Books carried some short essays on Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997). Nicholas Kristof of the...
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The New York Times and CBS News conducted phone interviews of persons who identify with the Tea Party movement. The full results, all 41 pages worth, can be viewed freely at http://s3.amazonaws.com/nytdocs/docs/312/312.pdf. The results are fascinating, at least to a political scientist. The Tea Party identifiers believe deeply in free markets. An astonishing 92%...
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Back in June, I wrote of the American Foundation for Continuing Education (AFCE). I noted that Edward C. Banfield had written at least two short stories for this organization, which include: Edward C. Banfield, “Growing Problem,” (Chicago, IL: American Foundation for Continuing Education, 1959); and Edward C. Banfield, “The Case of the Blighted City,”...
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