Tag: Public Policy

Topics

Books

A Crisis of Confidence?

– "A Crisis of Confidence?" The Public Interest, Spring 1967.
Excerpt: The similarities between the War in Viet Nam and the War on Cities are instructive. We are now in the thirteenth or whatever year of the foreign involvement, and the third or… More

The President & The Negro: The Moment Lost

– "The President & The Negro: The Moment Lost," Commentary, February 1967.
Excerpt: For anyone with even a moderate concern for the sources of stability in American government, the results of the 1966 elections will appear on balance a good thing. The Republican… More

The Crises in Welfare

– "The Crises in Welfare," The Public Interest, Winter 1968.
Excerpt: In the course of the Second Session of the Ninetieth Congress, the House of Representatives by near-unanimous action approved what must surely be the first purposively punitive… More

Toward a National Urban Policy

– "Toward a National Urban Policy," The Public Interest, Fall 1969.
Excerpt: In the spring of 1969, President Nixon met in the Cabinet room with ten mayors of American cities. They were nothing if not a variegated lot, mixing party, religion, race, region… More

Toward a National Urban Policy. New York: Basic Books

– (editor), Toward a National Urban Policy, New York: Basic Books, 1970.
Moynihan’s attempt to deal with the problems of the cities as they were developing in the late sixties. Also see the article published in The Public Interest here:… More

Coping: On the Practice of Government

– Coping: On the Practice of Government, New York: Vintage Books, 1975.
Essays by the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The central theme of each essay is how to frame the problems facing politicians correctly, how to identify what is really at stake.… More

Was Woodrow Wilson Right?

– "Was Woodrow Wilson Right?" Commentary, May 1974.
Excerpt: It is fifty years, since Woodrow Wilson died, but it does not seem fifty years: more like two-hundred-fifty. We are uncomfortable with Wilson in the 20th century, he seems more the… More

On U.N. Resolution 3379, Equating Zionism with Racism

– "On U.N. Resolution 3379, Equating Zionism with Racism," Speech to the United States General Assembly, November 10, 1975.
Excerpt: There appears to have developed in the United Nations the practice for a number of countries to combine for the purpose of doing something outrageous, and thereafter, the… More

The United States in Opposition

– "The United States in Opposition," Commentary, March 1975.
Excerpt: “We are far from living in a single world community,” writes Edward Shils, “but the rudiments of a world society do exist.” Among those rudiments, perhaps the most… More

On the Electoral College

– "Statement on the Electoral College," June 27, 1979.
Excerpt: Mr. President, I rise to speak briefly and for the first time in what I believe will be an extended debate on the matter before us, Senate Joint Resolution 28. I wish to address… More

What do you do when the Supreme Court is wrong?

– "What do you do when the Supreme Court is wrong?" The Public Interest, Fall 1979.
Excerpt: In its Spring Term of 1979, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Gannett v. DePasquale that the public does not have an independent constitutional right of access to a pretrial… More

Counting Our Blessings: Reflections on the Future of America

– Counting Our Blessings: Reflections on the Future of America, New York: Little Brown, 1980.
From Amazon: Moynihan served in the cabinet or subcabinet of four consecutive Presidents, as Ambassador to India, Professor of Government at Harvard University and as U.S. Senator from New… More

The paranoid style in American politics revisited

– "The paranoid style in American politics revisited," The Public Interest, Fall 1985.
Excerpt: Of continuity and change. It happens I wrote the opening article in the first issue of The Public Interest, and there I am to be found, then as ever since, quoting Nathan Glazer.… More

The “New Science of Politics” and the Old Art of Government

– "'The New Science of Politics' and the Old Art of Government," The Public Interest, Winter 1987.
Excerpt: AS WE APPROACH the bicentennial of the Constitution, leafing through The Federalist, pondering the unexampled endurance of the arrangements the Founders put in place in those… More

The Modern Role of Congress in Foreign Affairs

– "The Modern Role of Congress in Foreign Affairs," Cardozo L. Rev. 9:1489, 1987-1988.
A century ago, in a letter to the committee responsible for the centennial celebration, the then British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone called the U.S. Constitution “the most… More

Half the Nation’s Children: Born Without a Fair Chance

– "Half the Nation's Children: Born Without a Fair Chance," The New York Times, September 25, 1988.
Excerpt: To talk about the condition of children is by definition to talk about the families in which they live. That is why we are going to have to learn to talk about two kinds of… More

Toward a post-industrial social policy

– "Toward a post-industrial social policy," The Public Interest, Summer 1989.
A QUARTER of a century has elapsed since I sat alongside Sargent Shriver in the hearing room of the House Committee on Education and Labor as he presented the opening testimony on what was… More

The Soviet Economy: Boy, Were We Wrong!

– "The Soviet Economy: Boy, Were We Wrong!" The Washington Post, July 11, 1990.
Excerpt: On July 1, East Germans lined up at some 15,000 special distribution centers around the country to exchange their old currency for brand new West German D-marks. There was much… More

Another War—the One on Poverty—Is Over, Too

– "Another War—the One on Poverty—Is Over, Too," The New York Times, July 16, 1990.
Excerpt: On June 6, another headline announced an end of sorts of another war: ”White House Spurns Expansion of Nation’s Anti-Poverty Efforts.”.

Do We Still Need the C.I.A.?; The State Dept. Can Do the Job

– "Do We Still Need the C.I.A.?; The State Dept. Can Do the Job," The New York Times, May 19, 1991.
Excerpt: The nomination of Robert M. Gates a career officer and sometime head of the Directorate of Intelligence of the C.I.A. — to be head of the agency comes at a moment when it is… More

Educational goals and political plans

– "Educational goals and political plans," The Public Interest, Winter 1991.
Excerpt: AMERICAN POLITICS has been notable for its lack of ideological structure. We have had our share and more of ideological movements, but these have typically begun outside the system… More

North Dakota, Math Country

– "North Dakota, Math Country," The New York Times, February 3, 1992.
Excerpt: In his State of the Union Message, the President reaffirmed his commitment to making our country “the world leader in education,” adding that to do so, “We must… More

How the Great Society “destroyed the American family”

– "How the Great Society 'destroyed the American family'," The Public Interest, Summer 1992.
Excerpt: THIS ELECTION YEAR will be the first in American history in which the issue of welfare dependency has been raised to the level of presidential politics. Not, that is, the issue of… More

Iatrogenic Government: Social Policy and Drug Research

– "Iatrogenic Government: Social Policy and Drug Research," The American Scholar, Summer 1993.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1983, Armand M. Nicholi of the department of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School commented: When… More

Toward a new intolerance

– "Toward a new intolerance," The Public Interest, Summer 1993.
IT WILL BE fifty years ago this June that I graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem, in the company of State Senator Joe Galiber, and any number of prominent New… More

Defining Deviancy Down

– "Defining Deviancy Down," The American Scholar, Winter 1993.
Excerpt: In one of the founding texts of sociology, The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), Emile Durkheim set it down that “crime is normal.” “It is,” he wrote,… More

Free Trade with an Unfree Society: A Commitment and its Consequences

– "Free Trade with an Unfree Society: A Commitment and its Consequences," The National Interest, Summer 1995.
In late January fo this year I went to the Senate floor to speak of U.S. relations with Mexico, in the context of the new North American Free Trade Agreement. My theme was one I had touched… More

The Devolution Revolution

– "The Devolution Revolution," The New York Times, August 6, 1995.
Excerpt: A considerable debate has commenced in the Senate, but it is not, as commonly portrayed, about welfare. The subject, rather, is the devolution — “causing to… More

The Professionalization of Reform II

– "The Professionalization of Reform II," The Public Interest, Fall 1995.
THIRTY years ago, in the first article of the first issue of The Public Interest, I published some observations on “The Professionalization of Reform,” which 30 years later can be read,… More

Social Security As We Knew It

– "Social Security As We Knew It," The New York Times, January 5, 1997.
Excerpt: Tomorrow, one year late, the Advisory Council on Social Security is scheduled to report on the finances of our national retirement system. More to the point, there will likely be… More

The culture of secrecy

– "The culture of secrecy," The Public Interest, Summer 1997.
Excerpt: IT is a half century since the foreign intelligence system of the United States was established by the National Security Act of 1947. It is 80 years since the Espionage Act of 1917… More

Data and Dogma in Public Policy

– "Data and Dogma in Public Policy," Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1999.
Abstract: Statistics play an important role in the affairs of state. The development over the last 70 years of national economic and product accounts, the creation in 1946 of a Council of… More

Building Wealth For Everyone

– "Building Wealth For Everyone," The New York Times, May 30, 2000.
Excerpt: Social insurance began in Europe, principally in Germany in the Bismarck era. In 1911, Winston Churchill carried unemployment insurance in the House of Commons, representing the… More

Ethnicity Now

– "Ethnicity Now," The Washington Post, September 16, 2001.

The Future of the Family

– Moynihan, Timothy M. Sneeding, and Lee Rainwater, The Future of the Family, Russell Sage Foundation, 2006.
From the publisher: High rates of divorce, single-parenthood, and nonmarital cohabitation are forcing Americans to reexamine their definition of family. This evolving social reality… More

Essays

A Crisis of Confidence?

– "A Crisis of Confidence?" The Public Interest, Spring 1967.
Excerpt: The similarities between the War in Viet Nam and the War on Cities are instructive. We are now in the thirteenth or whatever year of the foreign involvement, and the third or… More

The President & The Negro: The Moment Lost

– "The President & The Negro: The Moment Lost," Commentary, February 1967.
Excerpt: For anyone with even a moderate concern for the sources of stability in American government, the results of the 1966 elections will appear on balance a good thing. The Republican… More

The Crises in Welfare

– "The Crises in Welfare," The Public Interest, Winter 1968.
Excerpt: In the course of the Second Session of the Ninetieth Congress, the House of Representatives by near-unanimous action approved what must surely be the first purposively punitive… More

Toward a National Urban Policy

– "Toward a National Urban Policy," The Public Interest, Fall 1969.
Excerpt: In the spring of 1969, President Nixon met in the Cabinet room with ten mayors of American cities. They were nothing if not a variegated lot, mixing party, religion, race, region… More

Toward a National Urban Policy. New York: Basic Books

– (editor), Toward a National Urban Policy, New York: Basic Books, 1970.
Moynihan’s attempt to deal with the problems of the cities as they were developing in the late sixties. Also see the article published in The Public Interest here:… More

Coping: On the Practice of Government

– Coping: On the Practice of Government, New York: Vintage Books, 1975.
Essays by the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The central theme of each essay is how to frame the problems facing politicians correctly, how to identify what is really at stake.… More

Was Woodrow Wilson Right?

– "Was Woodrow Wilson Right?" Commentary, May 1974.
Excerpt: It is fifty years, since Woodrow Wilson died, but it does not seem fifty years: more like two-hundred-fifty. We are uncomfortable with Wilson in the 20th century, he seems more the… More

On U.N. Resolution 3379, Equating Zionism with Racism

– "On U.N. Resolution 3379, Equating Zionism with Racism," Speech to the United States General Assembly, November 10, 1975.
Excerpt: There appears to have developed in the United Nations the practice for a number of countries to combine for the purpose of doing something outrageous, and thereafter, the… More

The United States in Opposition

– "The United States in Opposition," Commentary, March 1975.
Excerpt: “We are far from living in a single world community,” writes Edward Shils, “but the rudiments of a world society do exist.” Among those rudiments, perhaps the most… More

On the Electoral College

– "Statement on the Electoral College," June 27, 1979.
Excerpt: Mr. President, I rise to speak briefly and for the first time in what I believe will be an extended debate on the matter before us, Senate Joint Resolution 28. I wish to address… More

What do you do when the Supreme Court is wrong?

– "What do you do when the Supreme Court is wrong?" The Public Interest, Fall 1979.
Excerpt: In its Spring Term of 1979, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Gannett v. DePasquale that the public does not have an independent constitutional right of access to a pretrial… More

Counting Our Blessings: Reflections on the Future of America

– Counting Our Blessings: Reflections on the Future of America, New York: Little Brown, 1980.
From Amazon: Moynihan served in the cabinet or subcabinet of four consecutive Presidents, as Ambassador to India, Professor of Government at Harvard University and as U.S. Senator from New… More

The paranoid style in American politics revisited

– "The paranoid style in American politics revisited," The Public Interest, Fall 1985.
Excerpt: Of continuity and change. It happens I wrote the opening article in the first issue of The Public Interest, and there I am to be found, then as ever since, quoting Nathan Glazer.… More

The “New Science of Politics” and the Old Art of Government

– "'The New Science of Politics' and the Old Art of Government," The Public Interest, Winter 1987.
Excerpt: AS WE APPROACH the bicentennial of the Constitution, leafing through The Federalist, pondering the unexampled endurance of the arrangements the Founders put in place in those… More

The Modern Role of Congress in Foreign Affairs

– "The Modern Role of Congress in Foreign Affairs," Cardozo L. Rev. 9:1489, 1987-1988.
A century ago, in a letter to the committee responsible for the centennial celebration, the then British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone called the U.S. Constitution “the most… More

Half the Nation’s Children: Born Without a Fair Chance

– "Half the Nation's Children: Born Without a Fair Chance," The New York Times, September 25, 1988.
Excerpt: To talk about the condition of children is by definition to talk about the families in which they live. That is why we are going to have to learn to talk about two kinds of… More

Toward a post-industrial social policy

– "Toward a post-industrial social policy," The Public Interest, Summer 1989.
A QUARTER of a century has elapsed since I sat alongside Sargent Shriver in the hearing room of the House Committee on Education and Labor as he presented the opening testimony on what was… More

The Soviet Economy: Boy, Were We Wrong!

– "The Soviet Economy: Boy, Were We Wrong!" The Washington Post, July 11, 1990.
Excerpt: On July 1, East Germans lined up at some 15,000 special distribution centers around the country to exchange their old currency for brand new West German D-marks. There was much… More

Another War—the One on Poverty—Is Over, Too

– "Another War—the One on Poverty—Is Over, Too," The New York Times, July 16, 1990.
Excerpt: On June 6, another headline announced an end of sorts of another war: ”White House Spurns Expansion of Nation’s Anti-Poverty Efforts.”.

Do We Still Need the C.I.A.?; The State Dept. Can Do the Job

– "Do We Still Need the C.I.A.?; The State Dept. Can Do the Job," The New York Times, May 19, 1991.
Excerpt: The nomination of Robert M. Gates a career officer and sometime head of the Directorate of Intelligence of the C.I.A. — to be head of the agency comes at a moment when it is… More

Educational goals and political plans

– "Educational goals and political plans," The Public Interest, Winter 1991.
Excerpt: AMERICAN POLITICS has been notable for its lack of ideological structure. We have had our share and more of ideological movements, but these have typically begun outside the system… More

North Dakota, Math Country

– "North Dakota, Math Country," The New York Times, February 3, 1992.
Excerpt: In his State of the Union Message, the President reaffirmed his commitment to making our country “the world leader in education,” adding that to do so, “We must… More

How the Great Society “destroyed the American family”

– "How the Great Society 'destroyed the American family'," The Public Interest, Summer 1992.
Excerpt: THIS ELECTION YEAR will be the first in American history in which the issue of welfare dependency has been raised to the level of presidential politics. Not, that is, the issue of… More

Iatrogenic Government: Social Policy and Drug Research

– "Iatrogenic Government: Social Policy and Drug Research," The American Scholar, Summer 1993.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1983, Armand M. Nicholi of the department of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School commented: When… More

Toward a new intolerance

– "Toward a new intolerance," The Public Interest, Summer 1993.
IT WILL BE fifty years ago this June that I graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem, in the company of State Senator Joe Galiber, and any number of prominent New… More

Defining Deviancy Down

– "Defining Deviancy Down," The American Scholar, Winter 1993.
Excerpt: In one of the founding texts of sociology, The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), Emile Durkheim set it down that “crime is normal.” “It is,” he wrote,… More

Free Trade with an Unfree Society: A Commitment and its Consequences

– "Free Trade with an Unfree Society: A Commitment and its Consequences," The National Interest, Summer 1995.
In late January fo this year I went to the Senate floor to speak of U.S. relations with Mexico, in the context of the new North American Free Trade Agreement. My theme was one I had touched… More

The Devolution Revolution

– "The Devolution Revolution," The New York Times, August 6, 1995.
Excerpt: A considerable debate has commenced in the Senate, but it is not, as commonly portrayed, about welfare. The subject, rather, is the devolution — “causing to… More

The Professionalization of Reform II

– "The Professionalization of Reform II," The Public Interest, Fall 1995.
THIRTY years ago, in the first article of the first issue of The Public Interest, I published some observations on “The Professionalization of Reform,” which 30 years later can be read,… More

Social Security As We Knew It

– "Social Security As We Knew It," The New York Times, January 5, 1997.
Excerpt: Tomorrow, one year late, the Advisory Council on Social Security is scheduled to report on the finances of our national retirement system. More to the point, there will likely be… More

The culture of secrecy

– "The culture of secrecy," The Public Interest, Summer 1997.
Excerpt: IT is a half century since the foreign intelligence system of the United States was established by the National Security Act of 1947. It is 80 years since the Espionage Act of 1917… More

Data and Dogma in Public Policy

– "Data and Dogma in Public Policy," Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1999.
Abstract: Statistics play an important role in the affairs of state. The development over the last 70 years of national economic and product accounts, the creation in 1946 of a Council of… More

Building Wealth For Everyone

– "Building Wealth For Everyone," The New York Times, May 30, 2000.
Excerpt: Social insurance began in Europe, principally in Germany in the Bismarck era. In 1911, Winston Churchill carried unemployment insurance in the House of Commons, representing the… More

Ethnicity Now

– "Ethnicity Now," The Washington Post, September 16, 2001.

The Future of the Family

– Moynihan, Timothy M. Sneeding, and Lee Rainwater, The Future of the Family, Russell Sage Foundation, 2006.
From the publisher: High rates of divorce, single-parenthood, and nonmarital cohabitation are forcing Americans to reexamine their definition of family. This evolving social reality… More

Commentary

A Crisis of Confidence?

– "A Crisis of Confidence?" The Public Interest, Spring 1967.
Excerpt: The similarities between the War in Viet Nam and the War on Cities are instructive. We are now in the thirteenth or whatever year of the foreign involvement, and the third or… More

The President & The Negro: The Moment Lost

– "The President & The Negro: The Moment Lost," Commentary, February 1967.
Excerpt: For anyone with even a moderate concern for the sources of stability in American government, the results of the 1966 elections will appear on balance a good thing. The Republican… More

The Crises in Welfare

– "The Crises in Welfare," The Public Interest, Winter 1968.
Excerpt: In the course of the Second Session of the Ninetieth Congress, the House of Representatives by near-unanimous action approved what must surely be the first purposively punitive… More

Toward a National Urban Policy

– "Toward a National Urban Policy," The Public Interest, Fall 1969.
Excerpt: In the spring of 1969, President Nixon met in the Cabinet room with ten mayors of American cities. They were nothing if not a variegated lot, mixing party, religion, race, region… More

Toward a National Urban Policy. New York: Basic Books

– (editor), Toward a National Urban Policy, New York: Basic Books, 1970.
Moynihan’s attempt to deal with the problems of the cities as they were developing in the late sixties. Also see the article published in The Public Interest here:… More

Coping: On the Practice of Government

– Coping: On the Practice of Government, New York: Vintage Books, 1975.
Essays by the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The central theme of each essay is how to frame the problems facing politicians correctly, how to identify what is really at stake.… More

Was Woodrow Wilson Right?

– "Was Woodrow Wilson Right?" Commentary, May 1974.
Excerpt: It is fifty years, since Woodrow Wilson died, but it does not seem fifty years: more like two-hundred-fifty. We are uncomfortable with Wilson in the 20th century, he seems more the… More

On U.N. Resolution 3379, Equating Zionism with Racism

– "On U.N. Resolution 3379, Equating Zionism with Racism," Speech to the United States General Assembly, November 10, 1975.
Excerpt: There appears to have developed in the United Nations the practice for a number of countries to combine for the purpose of doing something outrageous, and thereafter, the… More

The United States in Opposition

– "The United States in Opposition," Commentary, March 1975.
Excerpt: “We are far from living in a single world community,” writes Edward Shils, “but the rudiments of a world society do exist.” Among those rudiments, perhaps the most… More

On the Electoral College

– "Statement on the Electoral College," June 27, 1979.
Excerpt: Mr. President, I rise to speak briefly and for the first time in what I believe will be an extended debate on the matter before us, Senate Joint Resolution 28. I wish to address… More

What do you do when the Supreme Court is wrong?

– "What do you do when the Supreme Court is wrong?" The Public Interest, Fall 1979.
Excerpt: In its Spring Term of 1979, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Gannett v. DePasquale that the public does not have an independent constitutional right of access to a pretrial… More

Counting Our Blessings: Reflections on the Future of America

– Counting Our Blessings: Reflections on the Future of America, New York: Little Brown, 1980.
From Amazon: Moynihan served in the cabinet or subcabinet of four consecutive Presidents, as Ambassador to India, Professor of Government at Harvard University and as U.S. Senator from New… More

The paranoid style in American politics revisited

– "The paranoid style in American politics revisited," The Public Interest, Fall 1985.
Excerpt: Of continuity and change. It happens I wrote the opening article in the first issue of The Public Interest, and there I am to be found, then as ever since, quoting Nathan Glazer.… More

The “New Science of Politics” and the Old Art of Government

– "'The New Science of Politics' and the Old Art of Government," The Public Interest, Winter 1987.
Excerpt: AS WE APPROACH the bicentennial of the Constitution, leafing through The Federalist, pondering the unexampled endurance of the arrangements the Founders put in place in those… More

The Modern Role of Congress in Foreign Affairs

– "The Modern Role of Congress in Foreign Affairs," Cardozo L. Rev. 9:1489, 1987-1988.
A century ago, in a letter to the committee responsible for the centennial celebration, the then British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone called the U.S. Constitution “the most… More

Half the Nation’s Children: Born Without a Fair Chance

– "Half the Nation's Children: Born Without a Fair Chance," The New York Times, September 25, 1988.
Excerpt: To talk about the condition of children is by definition to talk about the families in which they live. That is why we are going to have to learn to talk about two kinds of… More

Toward a post-industrial social policy

– "Toward a post-industrial social policy," The Public Interest, Summer 1989.
A QUARTER of a century has elapsed since I sat alongside Sargent Shriver in the hearing room of the House Committee on Education and Labor as he presented the opening testimony on what was… More

The Soviet Economy: Boy, Were We Wrong!

– "The Soviet Economy: Boy, Were We Wrong!" The Washington Post, July 11, 1990.
Excerpt: On July 1, East Germans lined up at some 15,000 special distribution centers around the country to exchange their old currency for brand new West German D-marks. There was much… More

Another War—the One on Poverty—Is Over, Too

– "Another War—the One on Poverty—Is Over, Too," The New York Times, July 16, 1990.
Excerpt: On June 6, another headline announced an end of sorts of another war: ”White House Spurns Expansion of Nation’s Anti-Poverty Efforts.”.

Do We Still Need the C.I.A.?; The State Dept. Can Do the Job

– "Do We Still Need the C.I.A.?; The State Dept. Can Do the Job," The New York Times, May 19, 1991.
Excerpt: The nomination of Robert M. Gates a career officer and sometime head of the Directorate of Intelligence of the C.I.A. — to be head of the agency comes at a moment when it is… More

Educational goals and political plans

– "Educational goals and political plans," The Public Interest, Winter 1991.
Excerpt: AMERICAN POLITICS has been notable for its lack of ideological structure. We have had our share and more of ideological movements, but these have typically begun outside the system… More

North Dakota, Math Country

– "North Dakota, Math Country," The New York Times, February 3, 1992.
Excerpt: In his State of the Union Message, the President reaffirmed his commitment to making our country “the world leader in education,” adding that to do so, “We must… More

How the Great Society “destroyed the American family”

– "How the Great Society 'destroyed the American family'," The Public Interest, Summer 1992.
Excerpt: THIS ELECTION YEAR will be the first in American history in which the issue of welfare dependency has been raised to the level of presidential politics. Not, that is, the issue of… More

Iatrogenic Government: Social Policy and Drug Research

– "Iatrogenic Government: Social Policy and Drug Research," The American Scholar, Summer 1993.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1983, Armand M. Nicholi of the department of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School commented: When… More

Toward a new intolerance

– "Toward a new intolerance," The Public Interest, Summer 1993.
IT WILL BE fifty years ago this June that I graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem, in the company of State Senator Joe Galiber, and any number of prominent New… More

Defining Deviancy Down

– "Defining Deviancy Down," The American Scholar, Winter 1993.
Excerpt: In one of the founding texts of sociology, The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), Emile Durkheim set it down that “crime is normal.” “It is,” he wrote,… More

Free Trade with an Unfree Society: A Commitment and its Consequences

– "Free Trade with an Unfree Society: A Commitment and its Consequences," The National Interest, Summer 1995.
In late January fo this year I went to the Senate floor to speak of U.S. relations with Mexico, in the context of the new North American Free Trade Agreement. My theme was one I had touched… More

The Devolution Revolution

– "The Devolution Revolution," The New York Times, August 6, 1995.
Excerpt: A considerable debate has commenced in the Senate, but it is not, as commonly portrayed, about welfare. The subject, rather, is the devolution — “causing to… More

The Professionalization of Reform II

– "The Professionalization of Reform II," The Public Interest, Fall 1995.
THIRTY years ago, in the first article of the first issue of The Public Interest, I published some observations on “The Professionalization of Reform,” which 30 years later can be read,… More

Social Security As We Knew It

– "Social Security As We Knew It," The New York Times, January 5, 1997.
Excerpt: Tomorrow, one year late, the Advisory Council on Social Security is scheduled to report on the finances of our national retirement system. More to the point, there will likely be… More

The culture of secrecy

– "The culture of secrecy," The Public Interest, Summer 1997.
Excerpt: IT is a half century since the foreign intelligence system of the United States was established by the National Security Act of 1947. It is 80 years since the Espionage Act of 1917… More

Data and Dogma in Public Policy

– "Data and Dogma in Public Policy," Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1999.
Abstract: Statistics play an important role in the affairs of state. The development over the last 70 years of national economic and product accounts, the creation in 1946 of a Council of… More

Building Wealth For Everyone

– "Building Wealth For Everyone," The New York Times, May 30, 2000.
Excerpt: Social insurance began in Europe, principally in Germany in the Bismarck era. In 1911, Winston Churchill carried unemployment insurance in the House of Commons, representing the… More

Ethnicity Now

– "Ethnicity Now," The Washington Post, September 16, 2001.

The Future of the Family

– Moynihan, Timothy M. Sneeding, and Lee Rainwater, The Future of the Family, Russell Sage Foundation, 2006.
From the publisher: High rates of divorce, single-parenthood, and nonmarital cohabitation are forcing Americans to reexamine their definition of family. This evolving social reality… More

Multimedia

A Crisis of Confidence?

– "A Crisis of Confidence?" The Public Interest, Spring 1967.
Excerpt: The similarities between the War in Viet Nam and the War on Cities are instructive. We are now in the thirteenth or whatever year of the foreign involvement, and the third or… More

The President & The Negro: The Moment Lost

– "The President & The Negro: The Moment Lost," Commentary, February 1967.
Excerpt: For anyone with even a moderate concern for the sources of stability in American government, the results of the 1966 elections will appear on balance a good thing. The Republican… More

The Crises in Welfare

– "The Crises in Welfare," The Public Interest, Winter 1968.
Excerpt: In the course of the Second Session of the Ninetieth Congress, the House of Representatives by near-unanimous action approved what must surely be the first purposively punitive… More

Toward a National Urban Policy

– "Toward a National Urban Policy," The Public Interest, Fall 1969.
Excerpt: In the spring of 1969, President Nixon met in the Cabinet room with ten mayors of American cities. They were nothing if not a variegated lot, mixing party, religion, race, region… More

Toward a National Urban Policy. New York: Basic Books

– (editor), Toward a National Urban Policy, New York: Basic Books, 1970.
Moynihan’s attempt to deal with the problems of the cities as they were developing in the late sixties. Also see the article published in The Public Interest here:… More

Coping: On the Practice of Government

– Coping: On the Practice of Government, New York: Vintage Books, 1975.
Essays by the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The central theme of each essay is how to frame the problems facing politicians correctly, how to identify what is really at stake.… More

Was Woodrow Wilson Right?

– "Was Woodrow Wilson Right?" Commentary, May 1974.
Excerpt: It is fifty years, since Woodrow Wilson died, but it does not seem fifty years: more like two-hundred-fifty. We are uncomfortable with Wilson in the 20th century, he seems more the… More

On U.N. Resolution 3379, Equating Zionism with Racism

– "On U.N. Resolution 3379, Equating Zionism with Racism," Speech to the United States General Assembly, November 10, 1975.
Excerpt: There appears to have developed in the United Nations the practice for a number of countries to combine for the purpose of doing something outrageous, and thereafter, the… More

The United States in Opposition

– "The United States in Opposition," Commentary, March 1975.
Excerpt: “We are far from living in a single world community,” writes Edward Shils, “but the rudiments of a world society do exist.” Among those rudiments, perhaps the most… More

On the Electoral College

– "Statement on the Electoral College," June 27, 1979.
Excerpt: Mr. President, I rise to speak briefly and for the first time in what I believe will be an extended debate on the matter before us, Senate Joint Resolution 28. I wish to address… More

What do you do when the Supreme Court is wrong?

– "What do you do when the Supreme Court is wrong?" The Public Interest, Fall 1979.
Excerpt: In its Spring Term of 1979, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Gannett v. DePasquale that the public does not have an independent constitutional right of access to a pretrial… More

Counting Our Blessings: Reflections on the Future of America

– Counting Our Blessings: Reflections on the Future of America, New York: Little Brown, 1980.
From Amazon: Moynihan served in the cabinet or subcabinet of four consecutive Presidents, as Ambassador to India, Professor of Government at Harvard University and as U.S. Senator from New… More

The paranoid style in American politics revisited

– "The paranoid style in American politics revisited," The Public Interest, Fall 1985.
Excerpt: Of continuity and change. It happens I wrote the opening article in the first issue of The Public Interest, and there I am to be found, then as ever since, quoting Nathan Glazer.… More

The “New Science of Politics” and the Old Art of Government

– "'The New Science of Politics' and the Old Art of Government," The Public Interest, Winter 1987.
Excerpt: AS WE APPROACH the bicentennial of the Constitution, leafing through The Federalist, pondering the unexampled endurance of the arrangements the Founders put in place in those… More

The Modern Role of Congress in Foreign Affairs

– "The Modern Role of Congress in Foreign Affairs," Cardozo L. Rev. 9:1489, 1987-1988.
A century ago, in a letter to the committee responsible for the centennial celebration, the then British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone called the U.S. Constitution “the most… More

Half the Nation’s Children: Born Without a Fair Chance

– "Half the Nation's Children: Born Without a Fair Chance," The New York Times, September 25, 1988.
Excerpt: To talk about the condition of children is by definition to talk about the families in which they live. That is why we are going to have to learn to talk about two kinds of… More

Toward a post-industrial social policy

– "Toward a post-industrial social policy," The Public Interest, Summer 1989.
A QUARTER of a century has elapsed since I sat alongside Sargent Shriver in the hearing room of the House Committee on Education and Labor as he presented the opening testimony on what was… More

The Soviet Economy: Boy, Were We Wrong!

– "The Soviet Economy: Boy, Were We Wrong!" The Washington Post, July 11, 1990.
Excerpt: On July 1, East Germans lined up at some 15,000 special distribution centers around the country to exchange their old currency for brand new West German D-marks. There was much… More

Another War—the One on Poverty—Is Over, Too

– "Another War—the One on Poverty—Is Over, Too," The New York Times, July 16, 1990.
Excerpt: On June 6, another headline announced an end of sorts of another war: ”White House Spurns Expansion of Nation’s Anti-Poverty Efforts.”.

Do We Still Need the C.I.A.?; The State Dept. Can Do the Job

– "Do We Still Need the C.I.A.?; The State Dept. Can Do the Job," The New York Times, May 19, 1991.
Excerpt: The nomination of Robert M. Gates a career officer and sometime head of the Directorate of Intelligence of the C.I.A. — to be head of the agency comes at a moment when it is… More

Educational goals and political plans

– "Educational goals and political plans," The Public Interest, Winter 1991.
Excerpt: AMERICAN POLITICS has been notable for its lack of ideological structure. We have had our share and more of ideological movements, but these have typically begun outside the system… More

North Dakota, Math Country

– "North Dakota, Math Country," The New York Times, February 3, 1992.
Excerpt: In his State of the Union Message, the President reaffirmed his commitment to making our country “the world leader in education,” adding that to do so, “We must… More

How the Great Society “destroyed the American family”

– "How the Great Society 'destroyed the American family'," The Public Interest, Summer 1992.
Excerpt: THIS ELECTION YEAR will be the first in American history in which the issue of welfare dependency has been raised to the level of presidential politics. Not, that is, the issue of… More

Iatrogenic Government: Social Policy and Drug Research

– "Iatrogenic Government: Social Policy and Drug Research," The American Scholar, Summer 1993.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1983, Armand M. Nicholi of the department of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School commented: When… More

Toward a new intolerance

– "Toward a new intolerance," The Public Interest, Summer 1993.
IT WILL BE fifty years ago this June that I graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem, in the company of State Senator Joe Galiber, and any number of prominent New… More

Defining Deviancy Down

– "Defining Deviancy Down," The American Scholar, Winter 1993.
Excerpt: In one of the founding texts of sociology, The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), Emile Durkheim set it down that “crime is normal.” “It is,” he wrote,… More

Free Trade with an Unfree Society: A Commitment and its Consequences

– "Free Trade with an Unfree Society: A Commitment and its Consequences," The National Interest, Summer 1995.
In late January fo this year I went to the Senate floor to speak of U.S. relations with Mexico, in the context of the new North American Free Trade Agreement. My theme was one I had touched… More

The Devolution Revolution

– "The Devolution Revolution," The New York Times, August 6, 1995.
Excerpt: A considerable debate has commenced in the Senate, but it is not, as commonly portrayed, about welfare. The subject, rather, is the devolution — “causing to… More

The Professionalization of Reform II

– "The Professionalization of Reform II," The Public Interest, Fall 1995.
THIRTY years ago, in the first article of the first issue of The Public Interest, I published some observations on “The Professionalization of Reform,” which 30 years later can be read,… More

Social Security As We Knew It

– "Social Security As We Knew It," The New York Times, January 5, 1997.
Excerpt: Tomorrow, one year late, the Advisory Council on Social Security is scheduled to report on the finances of our national retirement system. More to the point, there will likely be… More

The culture of secrecy

– "The culture of secrecy," The Public Interest, Summer 1997.
Excerpt: IT is a half century since the foreign intelligence system of the United States was established by the National Security Act of 1947. It is 80 years since the Espionage Act of 1917… More

Data and Dogma in Public Policy

– "Data and Dogma in Public Policy," Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1999.
Abstract: Statistics play an important role in the affairs of state. The development over the last 70 years of national economic and product accounts, the creation in 1946 of a Council of… More

Building Wealth For Everyone

– "Building Wealth For Everyone," The New York Times, May 30, 2000.
Excerpt: Social insurance began in Europe, principally in Germany in the Bismarck era. In 1911, Winston Churchill carried unemployment insurance in the House of Commons, representing the… More

Ethnicity Now

– "Ethnicity Now," The Washington Post, September 16, 2001.

The Future of the Family

– Moynihan, Timothy M. Sneeding, and Lee Rainwater, The Future of the Family, Russell Sage Foundation, 2006.
From the publisher: High rates of divorce, single-parenthood, and nonmarital cohabitation are forcing Americans to reexamine their definition of family. This evolving social reality… More

Teaching

A Crisis of Confidence?

– "A Crisis of Confidence?" The Public Interest, Spring 1967.
Excerpt: The similarities between the War in Viet Nam and the War on Cities are instructive. We are now in the thirteenth or whatever year of the foreign involvement, and the third or… More

The President & The Negro: The Moment Lost

– "The President & The Negro: The Moment Lost," Commentary, February 1967.
Excerpt: For anyone with even a moderate concern for the sources of stability in American government, the results of the 1966 elections will appear on balance a good thing. The Republican… More

The Crises in Welfare

– "The Crises in Welfare," The Public Interest, Winter 1968.
Excerpt: In the course of the Second Session of the Ninetieth Congress, the House of Representatives by near-unanimous action approved what must surely be the first purposively punitive… More

Toward a National Urban Policy

– "Toward a National Urban Policy," The Public Interest, Fall 1969.
Excerpt: In the spring of 1969, President Nixon met in the Cabinet room with ten mayors of American cities. They were nothing if not a variegated lot, mixing party, religion, race, region… More

Toward a National Urban Policy. New York: Basic Books

– (editor), Toward a National Urban Policy, New York: Basic Books, 1970.
Moynihan’s attempt to deal with the problems of the cities as they were developing in the late sixties. Also see the article published in The Public Interest here:… More

Coping: On the Practice of Government

– Coping: On the Practice of Government, New York: Vintage Books, 1975.
Essays by the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The central theme of each essay is how to frame the problems facing politicians correctly, how to identify what is really at stake.… More

Was Woodrow Wilson Right?

– "Was Woodrow Wilson Right?" Commentary, May 1974.
Excerpt: It is fifty years, since Woodrow Wilson died, but it does not seem fifty years: more like two-hundred-fifty. We are uncomfortable with Wilson in the 20th century, he seems more the… More

On U.N. Resolution 3379, Equating Zionism with Racism

– "On U.N. Resolution 3379, Equating Zionism with Racism," Speech to the United States General Assembly, November 10, 1975.
Excerpt: There appears to have developed in the United Nations the practice for a number of countries to combine for the purpose of doing something outrageous, and thereafter, the… More

The United States in Opposition

– "The United States in Opposition," Commentary, March 1975.
Excerpt: “We are far from living in a single world community,” writes Edward Shils, “but the rudiments of a world society do exist.” Among those rudiments, perhaps the most… More

On the Electoral College

– "Statement on the Electoral College," June 27, 1979.
Excerpt: Mr. President, I rise to speak briefly and for the first time in what I believe will be an extended debate on the matter before us, Senate Joint Resolution 28. I wish to address… More

What do you do when the Supreme Court is wrong?

– "What do you do when the Supreme Court is wrong?" The Public Interest, Fall 1979.
Excerpt: In its Spring Term of 1979, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Gannett v. DePasquale that the public does not have an independent constitutional right of access to a pretrial… More

Counting Our Blessings: Reflections on the Future of America

– Counting Our Blessings: Reflections on the Future of America, New York: Little Brown, 1980.
From Amazon: Moynihan served in the cabinet or subcabinet of four consecutive Presidents, as Ambassador to India, Professor of Government at Harvard University and as U.S. Senator from New… More

The paranoid style in American politics revisited

– "The paranoid style in American politics revisited," The Public Interest, Fall 1985.
Excerpt: Of continuity and change. It happens I wrote the opening article in the first issue of The Public Interest, and there I am to be found, then as ever since, quoting Nathan Glazer.… More

The “New Science of Politics” and the Old Art of Government

– "'The New Science of Politics' and the Old Art of Government," The Public Interest, Winter 1987.
Excerpt: AS WE APPROACH the bicentennial of the Constitution, leafing through The Federalist, pondering the unexampled endurance of the arrangements the Founders put in place in those… More

The Modern Role of Congress in Foreign Affairs

– "The Modern Role of Congress in Foreign Affairs," Cardozo L. Rev. 9:1489, 1987-1988.
A century ago, in a letter to the committee responsible for the centennial celebration, the then British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone called the U.S. Constitution “the most… More

Half the Nation’s Children: Born Without a Fair Chance

– "Half the Nation's Children: Born Without a Fair Chance," The New York Times, September 25, 1988.
Excerpt: To talk about the condition of children is by definition to talk about the families in which they live. That is why we are going to have to learn to talk about two kinds of… More

Toward a post-industrial social policy

– "Toward a post-industrial social policy," The Public Interest, Summer 1989.
A QUARTER of a century has elapsed since I sat alongside Sargent Shriver in the hearing room of the House Committee on Education and Labor as he presented the opening testimony on what was… More

The Soviet Economy: Boy, Were We Wrong!

– "The Soviet Economy: Boy, Were We Wrong!" The Washington Post, July 11, 1990.
Excerpt: On July 1, East Germans lined up at some 15,000 special distribution centers around the country to exchange their old currency for brand new West German D-marks. There was much… More

Another War—the One on Poverty—Is Over, Too

– "Another War—the One on Poverty—Is Over, Too," The New York Times, July 16, 1990.
Excerpt: On June 6, another headline announced an end of sorts of another war: ”White House Spurns Expansion of Nation’s Anti-Poverty Efforts.”.

Do We Still Need the C.I.A.?; The State Dept. Can Do the Job

– "Do We Still Need the C.I.A.?; The State Dept. Can Do the Job," The New York Times, May 19, 1991.
Excerpt: The nomination of Robert M. Gates a career officer and sometime head of the Directorate of Intelligence of the C.I.A. — to be head of the agency comes at a moment when it is… More

Educational goals and political plans

– "Educational goals and political plans," The Public Interest, Winter 1991.
Excerpt: AMERICAN POLITICS has been notable for its lack of ideological structure. We have had our share and more of ideological movements, but these have typically begun outside the system… More

North Dakota, Math Country

– "North Dakota, Math Country," The New York Times, February 3, 1992.
Excerpt: In his State of the Union Message, the President reaffirmed his commitment to making our country “the world leader in education,” adding that to do so, “We must… More

How the Great Society “destroyed the American family”

– "How the Great Society 'destroyed the American family'," The Public Interest, Summer 1992.
Excerpt: THIS ELECTION YEAR will be the first in American history in which the issue of welfare dependency has been raised to the level of presidential politics. Not, that is, the issue of… More

Iatrogenic Government: Social Policy and Drug Research

– "Iatrogenic Government: Social Policy and Drug Research," The American Scholar, Summer 1993.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1983, Armand M. Nicholi of the department of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School commented: When… More

Toward a new intolerance

– "Toward a new intolerance," The Public Interest, Summer 1993.
IT WILL BE fifty years ago this June that I graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem, in the company of State Senator Joe Galiber, and any number of prominent New… More

Defining Deviancy Down

– "Defining Deviancy Down," The American Scholar, Winter 1993.
Excerpt: In one of the founding texts of sociology, The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), Emile Durkheim set it down that “crime is normal.” “It is,” he wrote,… More

Free Trade with an Unfree Society: A Commitment and its Consequences

– "Free Trade with an Unfree Society: A Commitment and its Consequences," The National Interest, Summer 1995.
In late January fo this year I went to the Senate floor to speak of U.S. relations with Mexico, in the context of the new North American Free Trade Agreement. My theme was one I had touched… More

The Devolution Revolution

– "The Devolution Revolution," The New York Times, August 6, 1995.
Excerpt: A considerable debate has commenced in the Senate, but it is not, as commonly portrayed, about welfare. The subject, rather, is the devolution — “causing to… More

The Professionalization of Reform II

– "The Professionalization of Reform II," The Public Interest, Fall 1995.
THIRTY years ago, in the first article of the first issue of The Public Interest, I published some observations on “The Professionalization of Reform,” which 30 years later can be read,… More

Social Security As We Knew It

– "Social Security As We Knew It," The New York Times, January 5, 1997.
Excerpt: Tomorrow, one year late, the Advisory Council on Social Security is scheduled to report on the finances of our national retirement system. More to the point, there will likely be… More

The culture of secrecy

– "The culture of secrecy," The Public Interest, Summer 1997.
Excerpt: IT is a half century since the foreign intelligence system of the United States was established by the National Security Act of 1947. It is 80 years since the Espionage Act of 1917… More

Data and Dogma in Public Policy

– "Data and Dogma in Public Policy," Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1999.
Abstract: Statistics play an important role in the affairs of state. The development over the last 70 years of national economic and product accounts, the creation in 1946 of a Council of… More

Building Wealth For Everyone

– "Building Wealth For Everyone," The New York Times, May 30, 2000.
Excerpt: Social insurance began in Europe, principally in Germany in the Bismarck era. In 1911, Winston Churchill carried unemployment insurance in the House of Commons, representing the… More

Ethnicity Now

– "Ethnicity Now," The Washington Post, September 16, 2001.

The Future of the Family

– Moynihan, Timothy M. Sneeding, and Lee Rainwater, The Future of the Family, Russell Sage Foundation, 2006.
From the publisher: High rates of divorce, single-parenthood, and nonmarital cohabitation are forcing Americans to reexamine their definition of family. This evolving social reality… More