Book
Try common sense : replacing the failed ideologies of right and left
Edition
First edition.
Publication Information
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2019]
Physical Description
240 pages ; 22 cm
Summary
In this book, Philip K. Howard attacks the failed ideologies of both parties and proposes a radical simplification of government to re-empower Americans in their daily choices. Nothing will make sense until people are free to roll up their sleeves and make things work. The first steps are to abandon the philosophy of correctness and our devotion to mindless compliance. Americans are a practical people. They want government to be practical. Washington can't do anything practically. Worse, its bureaucracy prevents Americans from doing what's sensible. Conservative bluster won't fix this problem. Liberal hand-wringing won't work either. Frustrated voters reach for extremist leaders, but they too get bogged down in the bureaucracy that has accumulated over the past century. Howard shows how America can push the reset button and create simpler frameworks focused on public goals where officials--prepare for the shock--are actually accountable for getting the job done.
Contents
- Introduction
- Replacing a failed philosophy
- America the practical
- The fixation on correctness
- Back to basics : allocate scope of responsibility
- How correctness causes failure and alienation
- Fifty years of marginal reforms
- Unworkable political ideologies
- Four principles for practical government
- Give responsibility to identifiable people
- Restore accountability to public culture
- Governing institutions must govern
- Revive the moral mandate
- Profile of a practical society
- Who has responsibility for change?
- Appendix: Ten principles for a practical society.