Spring 2025

The French commitment to the thirty-five-hour work week.

The welfare state has always been under attack—by socialists, as something that falls short of socialism; by free marketeers, as socialistic. For twenty years, knowledgeable observers have been predicting its demise. What is its condition today? Is it moribund, or …

The debate over what to teach—”the canon”, “Great Books,” core curriculum, Western civilization versus world civilization, the sins of Stanford, and so on—is one the least edifying debates of recent times. The problem is that it’s not a debate at …

Many sociologists deny there is a ruling class. Paul Fussell says there is one—but it is “top out of sight.” Albert Gore, George Bush, Robert Dole, and Richard Gephardt accused each other of belonging to it but wouldn’t be caught …

Two and a half years after its first bold initiatives, it is clear that the Mitterrand presidency has not taken France “beyond the welfare state.” The 1984 budget, announced in September 1983, shows both the durability of the welfare state …

We are now in the middle of the battle over the 1984 budget. The president is browbeating us to “stay the course”; we have to derail him. Our job is not only to restore the services he would cut but …

It is clear by now that the Reagan administration is fulfilling the predictions of economic and social disaster that left-liberals made before Reagan’s election. Capitalism isn’t revitalized; instead, more than 25 percent of our productive capacity and almost 9 percent …

Since 1945 the British welfare state has had special meaning for Americans. Liberals have praised its accomplishments as typical of welfare states; conservatives have used Britain’s relatively slow growth and international decline as proof that welfare states cannot succeed. Both …

For some time, welfare-state capitalism has been on the defensive. Programs that were taken for granted now face destructive budget cuts, and crude individualistic theorists have won the initiative in public debate. Peter Albin argues that this second-class status of …

I. Are Limits to Growth Real? Since 1945, rapid growth of gross national products has been the chief goal of Western governments. It has been the basis of the welfare-state compromise, the answer to class tension and to demands for social justice in the …