Ideas & Public Policy
Examine the influence of ideas in some of our key policy debates.
In this seminar, fellows will consider the intersection of theory and practice in our national politics, and particularly in our key economic debates. Led by National Affairs editor and policy expert Yuval Levin, this seminar will survey major domestic challenges confronting our country, giving fellows a better understanding of just what policymakers do, of how economics and politics interact, and of how to approach some of our most contentious national debates.
Yuval Levin and Robert Doar on the future of the think tank
This course was part of our residential Political Studies Program. Fellows participate in morning seminars and meet prominent men and women in public life over afternoon and evening sessions.
Faculty
Yuval Levin
Yuval Levin is a Resident Scholar and Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and the Editor of National Affairs magazine. Mr. Levin served on the White House domestic policy staff under President George W. Bush.
Yuval Levin
Yuval Levin is a Resident Scholar and Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the founding Editor of National Affairs magazine. Prior to joining AEI, he was Vice President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and EPPC’s Hertog Fellow.
He is a Contributing Editor of National Review and The Weekly Standard and a Senior Editor of EPPC’s journal The New Atlantis. Author and editor of numerous books, including The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left (2013), The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism (2016), and he most recently published A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream (2020). His essays and articles have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and others.
Before joining EPPC, Mr. Levin served on the White House domestic policy staff under President George W. Bush. He has also been Executive Director of the President’s Council on Bioethics and a congressional staffer. He holds a B.A. from American University and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is a recipient of a 2013 Bradley Prize for intellectual achievement.
Download the Full Syllabus
Preview the Syllabus by Week/Session
Session I: How to Think About Economic Policy Debates
Readings:
- Publius, Federalist
- Aristotle, Politics, Book I, Chs. 8–10
- John Locke, Ch. 5, Second Treatise of Civil Government
Discussion Questions:
- Do political leaders have a responsibility to prioritize economic prosperity?
- Does private property serve a social purpose?
- Does the economic order of a society shape the character of its citizens?
Session II: Capitalism & the Welfare State
Readings:
- Thomas Paine, “Agrarian Justice,” 1797
- Marx and Engels, Ch. 1, “Bourgeois and Proletariat,” The Communist Manifesto
- Theodore Roosevelt, “The New Nationalism,” August 31, 1910
- Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 17, The Constitution of Liberty
Discussion Questions:
- What are our obligations toward the poor? What are the government’s obligations?
- Are there moral obligations that being wealthy imposes on the people who are wealthy? What are they? What are their limits?
- Does commercial society place any special burdens on, or give any special opportunities to, the poor? Are poor people better off in commercial societies, or in other kinds of society?
- What is the problem to which Marx and Engels want to offer a solution?
- What are the benefits and drawbacks of centralized management of the economy?
- Are markets democratic?
Session III: Health Care & Entitlements
Readings:
- Donald Marron, “America in the Red,” National Affairs (Spring 2010)
- Peter Wehner and Ian Tufts, “Does the Debt Matter?” National Affairs (Fall 2020)
- Kaiser Family Foundation, “Summary of the Affordable Care Act,” April 2013
- Antos, Capretta, et al., “Improving Health and Health Care,” pp. 1–26
Discussion Questions:
- Why is our country facing a fiscal crisis? Are the primary causes political, economic, or moral? How are these connected?
- What economic obligations does one generation have to the next?
- What is the connection between the moral case for providing benefits and the problem of paying for them?
Session IV: Higher Education & Liberal Education
Readings:
- Andrew Kelly, “Higher-Education Reform to Make College and Career Training More Effective and Affordable,” in Room to Grow
- Jason Delisle and Preston Cooper, “Is There a College Financing Crisis?” National Affairs (Summer 2021)
- Leo Strauss, “What Is Liberal Education?” in Introduction to Political Philosophy (Wayne State University Press, 1989)
Discussion Questions:
- From the perspective of economic policy, should we want students to pursue liberal arts or vocational majors?
- If we want our society to encourage both liberty and virtue, what kind of education is best?/li>
Session V: Mobility & Opportunity in a Populist Era
Readings:
- Jared Bernstein and Scott Winship, “Policy Options for Improving Economic Opportunity and Mobility,” June 2015
- Ron Haskins, “Getting Ahead in America,” National Affairs (Fall 2009)
- James Manzi, “Keeping America’s Edge,” National Affairs (Winter 2010)
- Glenn Hubbard, “The Wall and the Bridge,” National Affairs (Fall 2020)
Discussion Questions:
- What is the relationship between economic growth and social cohesion? Are they necessarily in tension? Which should we prefer?
- Is social mobility essential to American life? Should we never be satisfied with our position in society?
- Does growing income inequality signal a failure of our economic system? If so, is inequality a symptom or a cause?
