In the fifth week of Political Studies, fellows will turn to contemporary issues of domestic policy, with a focus on understanding how ideas influence policy.

One seminar will introduce students to the approaches and ideas of twentieth-century conservative social science through four great debates in social policy: family structure, poverty, welfare, and crime. The second seminar will explore policy at the intersection of politics and economics, and offer a critical examination of current fault lines: welfare state design, income inequality, and the delicate balance between governmental intervention and economic autonomy.

Charles Fain Lehman on Social Policy at PSP

This course is 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. Up to 32 fellows will be selected.

Faculty

Charles Fain Lehman

Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, working primarily on the Policing and Public Safety Initiative, and a contributing editor of City Journal. His work on criminal justice, immigration, and social issues has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and Tablet, among other publications.

Daniel DiSalvo

Daniel DiSalvo is a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute’s Center for State and Local Leadership and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at The City College of New York-CUNY.  His scholarship focuses on American political parties, elections, labor unions, state government, and public policy.

Preview the Syllabus by Week/Session

Readings:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What were the social problems that prompted conservative critiques?
  2. Where did Kennedy-Johnson liberalism go awry?
  3. What lessons can we draw from this experience for analysis today?

Readings:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Was Moynihan’s focus on family structure merited? Or was he “blaming the victim?”

Readings:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Is it persuasive to believe that individual behavior produces a persistent underclass?
  2. How much trust should we have in institutions to resolve the problems of the worst off?

Readings:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Was Murray right that welfare drove people to the dole? Or was he, as Jencks put it, a social Darwinist?

Readings:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Does the “broken windows” model work? Is it just? And should it remain the model for policing today?

Readings:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is political economy?
  2. How does Plutarch’s “Life of Lycurgus” illustrate the idea of a political regime?
  3. Should the object of political economy be to encourage material wealth and comfort amongst its inhabitants, or a certain way of life and character of citizenship?
  4. Why, according to Mandeville, do authority figures describe honor, power, and pride as “vices”? Should they?
  5. What do the hives in Mandeville’s poem represent? What are the trade-offs between the honest and corrupt hive?
  6. How does the introduction of private property and money affect the overall wellbeing of society? Does this view form the basis of modern capitalism?

Readings:

  • Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (selections)
    • i.1.1–13 (pp. 9–13, on sympathy); I.iii (pp. 50–66, the account of our sympathy with the wealthy, as well as the corruption of the moral sentiments). II.ii.2.1–II.ii.3.12 (pp. 82–91, on justice); IV.1.1–IV.2.12 (pp. 179–93, the “invisible hand,” beauty and utility, the role of government)
  • Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (selections)
    • i. (pp. 13–24, the division of labor); I.ii.1–5 (pp. 25–30, barter and trade); IV.ix.51 (p. 687, natural system of liberty)

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. According to Adam Smith, is man naturally sympathetic to his fellow men? What human behaviors and institutions does sympathy account for?
  2. How does the “invisible hand” operate?
  3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the division of labor in society?
  4. What does Smith mean by “natural liberty”?

Readings:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Does government intervention in the economy favor one class over the other? What is the relationship between political freedom and economic freedom, according to Friedman?
  2. Why is Friedman concerned with over-regulation of the economy? What are its ill effects on economic productivity? On political and social pluralism?
  3. What are the various arguments in favor of and opposed to the tariff?

Readings:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the causes of rising inequality and decreased mobility, according to President Obama? Where do Wehner and Beschel agree with Obama, and where do they disagree?
  2. How do Obama’s proposed solutions compare with Wehner’s and Beschel’s?
  3. What is the role of the government in addressing inequality?
  4. How would you characterize the debate over the measurement of inequality?

Readings:

 

Additional Course Materials:

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Where does Cass think that “conservative” free-market policies went wrong?
  2. What is his “working hypothesis” for how a new kind of conservative might respond?
  3. What factors does Raj Chetty associate with economic opportunity? What tools does Chetty use to measure this?
  4. How would you characterize the changes in the US Federal budget since the 1960s?
  5. Why, according to Piereson, are US fiscal policies largely unable to reduce inequality?

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Michael Zuckert

Michael Zuckert is the Nancy R. Dreux Professor of Political Science, Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. His books include Natural Rights and the New Republicanism, the Natural Rights Republic, Launching Liberalism, and (with Catherine Zuckert) The Truth About Leo Strauss and Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy, in addition to many articles. He has also edited The Spirit of Religion & the Spirit of Liberty and (with Derek Webb) The Antifederal Writings of the Melancton Smith Circle.

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Adam J. White

Adam J. White is the Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on the Supreme Court and the administrative state. Concurrently, he codirects the Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State.