Try Common Sense: Replacing the Failed Ideologies of Right and Left

by Philip K. Howard

Overview

Award-winning author Philip K. Howard lays out the blueprint for a new American society.

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 to be practical. Washington can’t do anything practically. Worse, its bureaucracy prevents Americans from doing what’s sensible. Conservative bluster won’t fix this problem. Liberal hand-wringing won’t work either. Frustrated voters reach for extremist leaders, but they too get bogged down in the bureaucracy that has accumulated over the past century. Howard shows how America can push the reset button and create simpler frameworks focused on public goals where officials—prepare for the shock—are actually accountable for getting the job done.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324001768
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/29/2019
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	681,115
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Philip K. Howard is the founder of Common Good, a nonprofit that advocates for simplifying government. His book, The Rule of Nobody, was a finalist for the Manhattan Institute’s Hayek Book Prize. He lives in New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction 11

Part I Replacing A Failed Philosophy 19

1 America the Practical 25

2 The Fixation on Correctness 30

3 Back to Basics: Allocate Scope of Responsibility 37

4 How Correctness Causes Failure and Alienation 43

5 Forty Years of Marginal Reforms 50

6 Unworkable Political Ideologies 57

Part II Four Principles For Practical Government 69

7 Give Responsibility to Identifiable People 71

8 Restore Accountability to Public Culture 85

9 Governing Institutions Must Govern 110

10 Revive the Moral Mandate 130

11 Profile of a Practical Society 146

12 Who Has Responsibility for Change? 154

Appendix Ten Principles for a Practical Society 159

Acknowledgments 167

Notes 171

Selected Bibliography 221

Index 231

Editorial Reviews

"[A] blockbuster."

Steve Forbes

"[A] thunderous little book."

Financial Times - Gillian Tett

"E]ngagingly written and never-dull aperçu that pinpoints with deadly accuracy … so much that is wrong with the current American administrative state."

Law & Liberty - Charlotte Allen

"If you have the feeling that America and its government and institutions are malfunctioning, then you should read this important book. It is time for us to… try common sense."

Jonathan Haidt

"Philip K. Howard has written a transcendent guidebook for life after Trump. This profound and practical new book makes us hope for the particular situation of a Philip Howard presidential candidacy at the head of his exemplary party for the Common Good."

George Gilder

"A breath of fresh air in an America where the political atmosphere has been poisoned by partisan invective."

Mary Ann Glendon

"[M]asterful. … [D]emand that your elected officials read it – and act according to Howard’s advice."

Washington Examiner - Quin Hillyer

"Wonderful ideas beautifully expressed."

John Sweller

"Try Common Sense will send Washington reeling. Howard provides practical vision certain to offend the political establishment."

Alan K. Simpson

2018-11-12

"Practicality may be America's core virtue. But not in Washington." So writes the Common Good founder in his latest deconstruction of American politics.

For more than two decades, Howard (The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Broken Government, 2014, etc.) has offered viable solutions for more effective democracy, and his latest book is right in line with his efforts to invoke long-overdue change in our stagnant, dysfunctional political culture. "America needs a governing framework that reconnects real people with actual results," he writes. Though there are countless calls for Washington to produce more laws and better rules, this only complicates an already dense morass of legislative overkill. "Government's abject failure to make practical choices is not a matter of dispute," writes Howard, continuing, "Republicans call for deregulation. Democrats call for more regulation and more funding. Meanwhile the actual cause of the failure, the inability to be sensible in actual situations, is demonstrated to Americans on a daily basis." But mere tweaks won't be sufficient; the government needs an overhaul. Wishful thinking? Not according to Howard. Citing everyone from Alexander Hamilton and James Madison to Winston Churchill, Tocqueville, and Studs Terkel, the author optimistically lays out a no-nonsense playbook for sustainable government and an American future driven by accountability and personal and political responsibility. However, this will only occur if the people demand an overhaul and if leaders are willing to initiate it. Conditioned to run things by the book, officials are now "disempowered from doing what they know is right." The answer isn't revolutionary, writes the author, but once officials receive more authority to regulate, voters will have to be ever more vigilant and civically active. "Our fifty-year vacation from active democracy has come to an end," he writes. "No more reclining in the Barcalounger and griping at the television."

With provocative arguments and convincing solutions, Howard offers a fresh, nonpartisan approach that will appeal to anyone frustrated with government's ongoing failures.

Kirkus Reviews