Tod Lindberg contends that the winning Republican coalition of the 1980s is cracking up. The state legislatures, the governorships, the Congress – all are increasingly Republican, while the presidency has now twice gone Democratic for the first time since FDR. Lindberg argues that practical Republicanism sells at the local level. But the Republicans’ ideology does […]
According to scholars Anthony Downs, Katherine Bradbury and Kenneth Small, Baltimore was a city in distress as early as 1982.1 Today, the town is in a similar state, if not worse, given the diminishing tax base and increased demand for services that have occurred over the last several years. Many of Baltimore’s – and other […]
It is by now well known that the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Welfare Reform has recommended that legislation be crafted allowing the state to screen welfare applicants for drug use. The task force is co-chaired by Senator Martin G. Madden (R-Howard and Price George’s) and Delegate Samuel I. Rosenberg (D-Baltimore City/County). There are a […]
Governor Glendening has reneged on his pledge to cut taxes. This is a political mistake as well as an economic one for the state. While he may pay the political price that befell George Bush in 1992 and the Democrats in 1994 after they broke their promises on taxes, it is Maryland residents who will […]
Tort reform, the effort to curb abuses in the civil justice system, is sweeping the country. In reaction to a public outcry against frivolous lawsuits which produce awards far in excess of actual damages (if any) suffered, more than 30 state legislatures have enacted tort reform legislation since the mid-1980s.1 In 1996, Ohio enacted comprehensive […]
Our Constitution guarantees a “republican form of government.” Alas, from my experience as a law professor, the meaning of “republican” appears opaque to most law students. To early generations of Americans, republicanism conveyed two clear and important concepts: one of “rights,” through popular sovereignty and governments of limited powers; the other of “responsibilities,” expressed through […]
Evil, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder, and the religious right serves as a good case in point. Some Americans, mostly liberal and secular, believe the religious right poses the greatest threat to American democracy since the country’s founding. Others, mostly conservative and religious, believe it represents God’s last battalion in […]
With Bill Clinton’s reelection to the White House, doubtless there will be intensified talk of “revisiting” welfare reform – largely with a view to gutting it. Likewise, at the state level, this reporter recently participated in a public debate on welfare reform at Loyola College in Baltimore. A well meaning opponent earnestly defended the old […]
When they met last spring for the “Education Summit II,” the nation’s governors and several prominent corporate executives hoped to light a fire under American education. It needs it. The meeting’s co-chairmen, IBM chief executive Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. and Wisconsin Governor Tommy G. Thompson (R), started out under no illusions. Gerstner pointed out that […]
With surging juvenile crime rates and limited budgets, state governments have been hard pressed to handle the increasing demands on the juvenile-justice system. This strain has led to increased privatization of juvenile-corrections services. Once found only on the outer fringes of libertarianism, advocates of privatized corrections are new viewed as being well within the mainstream. […]