Forum III (Summer 2017)
The President's House Is Empty: Losing and Gaining Public Goods
Many of the critical issues of our time—from clean water to health care to schools—are about public goods, things that are owed to the members of a democratic society. In the United States, these goods are endangered and access to them is constricted by class and race. Against this background, Trump’s nearly empty White House stands as a symbol of the crisis our democracy faces. In this Forum we consider public goods: what they are, how to provide them, how to ensure equitable access. The debate about public goods is at heart a debate about what it means to be an American. What is at stake is not only what we owe to each other but who we are.
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Editors' Note
Deborah Chasman and Joshua Cohen
FORUM
Losing and Gaining Public Goods
K. Sabeel Rahman
The Third Rail
Elaine Kamarck
Saving the Commons from the Public
Michael Hardt
All Good Things
Jacob T. Levy
Naming the Villain
Lauren Jacobs
A Beautiful Public Good
Joshua Cohen
The Last Word
K. Sabeel Rahman
ESSAYS
The President's House Is Empty
Bonnie Honig
Are Bureaucracies a Public Good?
Bernardo Zacka
Free College for All
Marshall Steinbaum
A Public Good Gone Bad: On Policing
Tracey Meares
Draining the Swamp: On Mar-a-Lago
Julian C. Chambliss
The Worth of Water
Meghan O'Gieblyn
POETRY
The Role of the Negro in the Work of Art
Shane McCrae
A Make-Believe Nation
Craig Santos Perez
Soon Scrap Heap
Sally Ball