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21. The Battle over the Draft

Author:
Leon Aron
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
On December 29, 2004, Russia's minister of defense, Sergei Ivanov, announced plans to eliminate draft deferments for college students. Predictably, the popular reaction was so uniformly negative and furious that the abolition of deferments has been postponed—but not eliminated from the Kremlin's agenda.
Topic:
Civil Society, Government, and War
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

22. A Fitting Address

Author:
James Q. Wilson
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
My fellow Americans, we are winning, and winning decisively, in Iraq and the Middle East. We defeated Saddam Hussein's army in just a few weeks. None of the disasters that many feared would follow our invasion occurred. Our troops did not have to fight door to door to take Baghdad. The Iraqi oil fields were not set on fire. There was no civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites. There was no grave humanitarian crisis. Saddam Hussein was captured and is awaiting trial. His two murderous sons are dead. Most of the leading members of Saddam's regime have been captured or killed. After our easy military victory, we found ourselves inadequately prepared to defeat the terrorist insurgents, but now we are prevailing.
Topic:
Civil Society and Government
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, and Baghdad

23. American Dilemma: Problems of Race Still Cry to Be Solved

Author:
James Q. Wilson
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
National Review, at its founding in 1955, had as its mission stating and defending a conservative view in a nation that many believed had known only a liberal tradition. It was a difficult task, not only because of liberalism's apparent supremacy, but because it was not easy to define a conservative alternative. Conservatism could mean free-market economics, the reassertion of a traditional morality, or the endorsement of a religious or classical basis for moral thought. In the spirited discussions that took place in this magazine and elsewhere, each of these views had its proponents, and—as they made quite clear—their views were often in conflict. Individualism and free-market economics could leave morality to personal and even aberrant judgments, but a revival of moral thought and a reassertion of its religious basis could easily suppress individual choice and impose regulatory restraints on the market.
Topic:
Civil Society, Ethnic Conflict, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States and America

24. Milton and Rose Friedman: Liberty's Couple

Author:
Lawrence B. Lindsey
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
In the company of history's great revolutionaries, Rose and Milton Friedman stand out as clear anomalies. Diminutive in stature and modest in speech and manner, they cannot easily be imagined manning the barricades or hectoring the crowds from a soapbox. Most important, unlike other visionaries who sought to change the world, the Friedmans did not say, “Put us in charge of the government, and we will make your life better.” Rather, they argued that governments then in charge should get out of the way so that individuals could get on with the job of making their own lives better. Their 1980 book Free to Choose successfully instigated a revolution in public policy because it offered conservatives both a rhetorical weapon and a legislative program. Until then, the Left had a clear advantage on both scores. Rhetorically, the Left promised compassion and equality and packaged them with programmatic action in the form of ever-increasing government power. Those opposed to an ever larger and more intrusive state were thus forced to defend hardheartedness and inequality, and to oppose legislative change.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Government, and Politics

25. Rediscovering the Underclass

Author:
Charles Murray
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Watching the courage of ordinary low-income people as they deal with the aftermath of Katrina and Rita, it is hard to decide which politicians are more contemptible—Democrats who are rediscovering poverty and blaming it on George W. Bush, or Republicans who are rediscovering poverty and claiming that the government can fix it. Both sides are unwilling to face reality: We have not rediscovered poverty, we have rediscovered the underclass. The underclass has been growing during all the years that people were ignoring it, including the Clinton years; and the pro- grams politicians tout as solutions are a mismatch for the people who constitute the problem. We have rediscovered the underclass. Newspapers and television understandably prefer to feature low-income people who are trying hard—the middle-aged man working two jobs, the mother worrying about how to get her children into school in a strange city. These people are rightly the objects of an outpouring of help from around the country, but their troubles are relatively easy to resolve. Tell the man where a job is, and he will take it. Tell the mother where a school is, and she will get her children into it. Other images show us the face of the hard problem: those of the looters and thugs, and those of inert women doing nothing to help themselves or their children. They are the underclass.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Government, and Human Welfare

26. Small Leaps or Giant Leaps

Author:
Scott Gottlieb
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
There are seldom eureka moments in health care. Few new drugs or medical devices save scores of lives or cure diseases when they first hit the market. New technologies rarely translate into immediate life expectancy gains, and it is uncommon that results of a single study will transform how medicine is practiced. Medical progress is not magic, and sudden discoveries do not lead to dramatic cures, although a new book by Marcia Angell, a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, would lead you to think all of our gains in health have been achieved from just a handful of the most potent new medicines. Instead, medical breakthroughs unfold over time, and gains in life expectancy and health are realized only after a series of small technological advances are collected into new ways of practicing medicine or attacking a disease. The practice of medicine unfolds not in a series of certainties, but in a series of doubts.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Human Welfare, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
England

27. The Great Shift to Specialty Drugs

Author:
Scott Gottlieb
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
When drug maker GlaxoSmithKline held a showcase day for investors late last year, the company bragged about its burgeoning pipeline of new medicines, but also a fruitful restructuring it undertook a few years ago. Glaxo broke its sprawling research shop into smaller units focused on a dozen or so disease areas. In was an emphasis on major health problems, such as cancer, heart disease, and brain disorders like Alzheimer's dis- ease. Gone were the same concerted efforts to focus the majority of its research on more routine medical problems such as sniffles, sore muscles, and nicotine addiction. Like a lot of other drug makers, Glaxo is moving its research upstream into weighty maladies that have remained unsolved by modern medicine and away from primary-care problems.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Emerging Markets, and Human Welfare

28. Even Workers with "McJobs" Deserve Respect

Author:
James K. Glassman
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Entry-level positions long criticized as "dead-end jobs" deserve respect as stepping-stones to greater success, as these jobs teach the basics of business to new workers.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Economics, and Education