Class & Inequality

Trench Democracy in Public Administration #2: Interview with Andrea Arnold

Decatur, Georgia: a town where citizen participation plays a significant role in the daily life of government.

Tiger Couple Gets It Wrong on Immigrant Success

High-earning immigrants often come from highly educated or affluent families to begin with.

7 Bipartisan Reasons to Raise the Minimum Wage

It's only fair, and other reasons why voters on all sides should agree.

How Finance Gutted Manufacturing

Since the 1980s, financial market pressures have driven companies to hive off activities that sustained manufacturing.

Why the Success of the Rest is Good for America

Charles Kenny's The Upside of Down.

Trench Democracy in Schools #2: An Interview with Helen Beattie

Deepening student engagement through collaborative action.

The Landscape of Campaign Finance Reform

Lawrence Lessig walked across New Hampshire to put campaign finance reform back on the national agenda.

Male (Job) Insecurity

Critics of the broadening inequality insist that earnings have been flat or dropping. They have—for men.

Afghanistan’s Misguided Economy

In 1978, Afghanistan had achieved food security for a population of 15 million. Today, Afghanistan is extremely dependent on aid and imports.

Trench Democracy in Public Administration: an Interview with Kimball Payne

Study circles for race and racism in Lynchburg.

Lost Radicals

The internationalism of black radicals was an alternative to a universalism that wasn’t universal.

The Public Housing Experiment

Public housing has been a significant part of the debate over American government safety net programs.

Schools and Citizens

The failure of corporate reform.

Inequality: Is Obama Serious About Economic Justice?

President Obama seems comfortable pursuing cooperation, but not redistribution.

The Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement Can Succeed Where Politics Failed

The divestment movement’s moral clarity entails a risk if advocates shift from demonizing fossil fuels to demonizing the people who dig them up. 

Trusting the Poor

Welfare policy breeds distrust, which in turn undermines outcomes. Judith A. Levine offers modest proposals for how we can reach the most disadvantaged among us.  

Trench Democracy in Criminal Justice: an Interview with Lauren Abramson

Participatory Innovation in Unlikely Places.

Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools

What advocates of market-based reform miss.

How De Blasio’s Real Estate Choices Can Save NYC

Cities can make decisions. Cities can set their own priorities. Cities can resist the self-interested categories of those with extraordinary wealth.

Scarcity Can Help Us Rethink Social Policy…and Campaigns

Scarcity lays the foundation for thinking differently about poverty.

Whose Character?

Why Character Education is Inherently Flawed

Trench Democracy in Schools: an Interview with Principal Donnan Stoicovy

Participatory Innovation in Unlikely Places

Trench Democracy in Schools: an Interview with Principal Donnan Stoicovy

Part of our series on participatory innovation in unlikely places.

What Adam Smith Can Teach Us About Incentives in Higher Education

His vision of human nature favored neither the brutish realism of Thomas Hobbes nor the wide-eyed optimism of Francis Hutcheson.

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