Uniting America: Restoring the Vital Center to American Democracy (The Future of American Democracy Series)

298 Pages·2006·1.09 MB·English

by  Norton Garfinkle

Uniting America

Uniting America
Restoring the Vital Center to
American Democracy
Edited by
Norton Garfinkle and Daniel Yankelovich
Yale University Press
New Haven and London
Copyright(cid:2)2005byNortonGarfinkleandDanielYankelovich
Allrightsreserved.
Thisbookmaynotbereproduced,inwholeorinpart,includingillustrations,in
anyform(beyondthatcopyingpermittedbySections107and108oftheU.S.
CopyrightLawandexceptbyreviewersforthepublicpress),withoutwritten
permissionfromthepublishers.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
UnitingAmerica:restoringthevitalcentertoAmericandemocracy/edited
byNortonGarfinkleandDanielYankelovich.
p.cm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-300-10856-7(alk.paper)
1.Democracy—UnitedStates.2.UnitedStates—Politicsand
government—2001–3.Politicalculture—UnitedStates.4.United
States—Socialconditions—1980–5.Socialconflict—UnitedStates.6.
Polarization(Socialsciences)I.Garfinkle,Norton,1931–II.Yankelovich,
Daniel.
JK1726.U564 2005
320.973—dc22 2005012038
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
Thepaperinthisbookmeetstheguidelinesforpermanenceanddurabilityofthe
CommitteeonProductionGuidelinesforBookLongevityoftheCouncilon
LibraryResources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction 1
PartOne.RestoringtheVitalCenter
1. Overcoming Polarization: The New Social Morality
Daniel Yankelovich 17
2. Nurturing Economic Growth and the Values of
American Democracy Norton Garfinkle 31
PartTwo.ReformingSocialSecurityandHealthCare
3. Social Security and Medicare Reform for the
Twenty-First Century Will Marshall 49
4. The Ethics of America’s Health Care Debate
Tsung-mei Cheng and Uwe E. Reinhardt 67
PartThree.DiversityandUnity
5. Religion as Unifier and Divider Alan Wolfe 93
vi Contents
6. Diversity, Community, and Government
Peter H. Schuck 109
7. Immigration and Social Disorder Peter Skerry 124
PartFour.SecurityandLiberty
8. Fighting the War on Terrorism Francis Fukuyama 141
9. Constitutional Responsibility in the War on
Terrorism Michael Vatis 155
PartFive.Character,Citizenship,andValues
10. Character Education and the Challenge of Raising a
Moral Generation Chester E. Finn, Jr. 181
11. Citizenship, Civic Unity, and National Service
William A. Galston 198
12. The Fair Society Amitai Etzioni 211
PartSix.EnvironmentalandElectoralReform
13. Toward a Sustainable Environmentalism Mark Sagoff 227
14. Is Reform of America’s Electoral System Possible?
Thomas E. Mann 245
Conclusion: The Impact of Fateful Trends 265
Contributors 269
Index 271
Preface
E. J. Dionne, Jr., has declared that there is a new “revolt of the
middle”inAmericanpolitics—agrowingsenseamongthevastcen-
trist, pragmatic majority of Americans that Washington’s ideologi-
cally driven “politics of polarization” is increasingly leaving them
out.Ifthereissuchaquietrevolutionafoottodayamongpolitically
moderate Americans—citizens who do not feel at home with the
more extreme positions taken by either side in Washington’s on-
going political debates—then such citizens should find Uniting
America to be a breath of fresh air.
Uniting America is the first of what we hope will be a series of
new books, articles, lectures, conferences, and public initiatives—
all designed to recover the lost “vital center” in American politics
and help Americans to build a shared, sensible, and hopeful vision
of our democratic future.
Our work on Uniting America inspired us to found a new non-
partisan,nonprofitfoundation,TheFutureofAmericanDemocracy
Foundation,tosponsorcontinuingactivitiesaimedatnurturingthis
new centrist vision.
vii
viii Preface
The Future of American Democracy Foundation is working closely with
the Yale Center for International and Area Studies and YaleUniversityPress
to develop a research and education agenda designed to renew and sustain
the historic vision of American democracy for the future. The Foundation
is enlisting some of America’s best policy minds to address the full range of
domestic and foreign policy issues the United States confronts in the years
ahead. The Foundation seeks to develop anew, morebalancedparadigmfor
American policymaking, one that can form the basis of acentristconsensus,
unitingcitizensaroundcommonaimsandpurposesthatwillgenuinelymeet
the challenges before us.
NortonGarfinklechairsTheFutureofAmericanDemocracyFoundation.
Daniel Yankelovich chairs the Foundation’s Advisory Board. Co-Chairs of
the Foundation’sExecutiveCommitteeincludeIanShapiro,HenryR.Luce,
DirectoroftheYaleCenterforInternationalandAreaStudies,andJonathan
Brent, Editorial Director of Yale University Press. The Foundation’s Exec-
utive Director is Patrick Glynn. Please visit our Web site—www.futureof
americandemocracyfoundation.org—forthelatestinformationontheFoun-
dation’s activities.
The editors would like to thank Amitai Etzioni for his help and support
in inviting authors to contribute to this volume. The editors also wish to
thank Patrick Glynn for his extensive editorial and organizational work in
helping to put the book together. Our agent, Frederica Friedman, a con-
summate publishing professional, workedtirelesslyonbehalfofthisvolume.
And finally the editors wish to expresstheirgratitudetoJonathanBrentand
his excellent editorial and production team at Yale University Pressfortheir
superb job in bringing the book to fruition.
Norton Garfinkle
Daniel Yankelovich
Uniting America