Something basic is missing in our culture. Americans know it. Nothing much works as it should. Simple daily choices seem impossible, or fraught with peril. In the workplace, we walk on eggshells. Big projects—say, modernizing infrastructure—get stalled in years of review. Endemic social problems such as homelessness become, well, more endemic.Everyday Freedom offers a radical reinterpretation of the corrosion of American culture. The assault o...
Elected leaders come and go, but public unions just say no." Hiding in plain sight is a fatal defect of modern democracy. Public employee unions have a death grip on the operating machinery of government. Schools can't work, bad cops can't be fired, and politicians sell their souls for union support.With this searing five-point indictment, Philip K. Howard argues that union controls have disempowered elected executives and should be unconstitu...
In this brief and powerful 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 t...
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"We need a new idea of how to govern. The current system is broken. Law is supposed to be a framework for humans to make choices, not the replacement for free choice." So notes Philip K. Howard in the new Afterword to his explosive manifesto The Death of Common Sense. Here Howard offers nothing less than a fresh, lucid, practical operating system for modern democracy. America is drowning-in law, lawsuits, and nearly ...
What's wrong in Washington is deeper than we think. There's gridlock, polarisation and self-dealing but hidden underneath is something bigger and more destructive: a broken governing system. From that comes wasteful government, rising debt, failing schools, expensive health care and economic hardship. Rules have replaced leadership.
This explosive manifesto argues that to get America moving again, Americans must be free to make sensible choice...
What's wrong in Washington is deeper than you think.
Yes, there's gridlock, polarization, and self-dealing. But hidden underneath is something bigger and more destructive. It's a broken governing system. From that comes wasteful government, rising debt, failing schools, expensive health care, and economic hardship.
Rules have replaced leadership in America. Bureaucracy, regulation, and outmoded law tie our hands and confine policy choices. Nob...
Americans are losing the freedom to make sense of daily choices-teachers can't maintain order in the classroom, managers are trained to avoid candor, schools ban tag, and companies plaster inane warnings on everything: "Remove Baby Before Folding Stroller."
Philip K. Howard's urgent argument is full of examples, often darkly humorous. He describes the historical and cultural forces that led to this mess and lays out the basic shift in approac...
The spontaneous sketch, drawn when occasion offers on whatever comes to hand, is a trademark of the architect's creativity. On the occasion of the opening of the museum of architecture in the Gallery of Modern Art in Munich, the museum director asked architects of international standing to sketch their personal greetings and congratulations on a paper napkin. These napkins are now part of a colorful, imaginative, and often droll collection, re...
In pursuit of fairness at any cost, we have created a society paralyzed by legal fear: Doctors are paranoid and principals powerless. Little league coaches, scared of liability, stop volunteering. Schools and hospitals start to crumble. The common good fades, replaced by a cacophony of people claiming their "individual rights." By turns funny and infuriating, this startling book dissects the dogmas of fairness that allow self-interested indivi...
