AEI - Social & Political Studies

American Politics and Political Institutions

AEI is home to several prominent analysts of trends in politics and public opinion, including Michael Barone, Edward Blum, Karlyn Bowman, John C. Fortier, David Frum, Steven F. Hayward, Norman J. Ornstein, and Ben J. Wattenberg. The recent presidential campaign has proven to be fertile ground for the team. Messrs. Barone, Fortier, and Ornstein, and Ms. Bowman commented on the 2008 election at ten well-attended conferences as part of AEI’s Election Watch series. Ms. Bowman provided a detailed demographic breakdown of the election results, and Mr. Ornstein serves as a consultant for the Transition Coordinating Council and has written and lectured on ways to ensure a smooth transition process between the outgoing and incoming administrations. In response to the electoral losses sustained by the Republican Party, Mr. Frum has penned a series of articles on how Republicans can rejuvenate themselves. His most recent book, Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, addressed this topic as well. The 2008 election also highlighted some of the important past contributions made by AEI scholars. Mr. Fortier’s most recent book, Absentee and Early Voting: Trends, Promises, and Perils, has become a classic that is commonly cited during election seasons. Beyond the election, AEI continues to make significant contributions to the study of American politics. Mr. Wattenberg is the author of the recently released Fighting Words: A Tale of How Liberals Created Neo-Conservatism, and he hosts the PBS television program Think Tank, which explores current social and political issues in the United States. Mr. Barone, principal author of the biannual Almanac of American Politics, is conducting a new study of internal American migration, and Mr. Hayward is completing the second volume of The Age of Reagan.

AEI Legal Center for the Public Interest

The AEI Legal Center for the Public Interest considers the broad range of legal issues facing the nation. The program features research by leading legal and economic experts, including Walter Berns, John R. Bolton, Ted Frank, Michael S. Greve, Peter J. Wallison, and John Yoo. Mr. Frank was recently elected to the American Law Institute, and his work on class action lawsuits continues to receive national attention; the solicitor general of Texas cited Mr. Frank in a recent brief. The Center’s future publications will include An Empirical Study of Product Liability Law and General Aviation Safety, by Eric Helland and Alexander Tabarrok; Implications of Multiple Enforcement Systems in the Securities Law Area, by Michael Perino; an overview on corporate governance institutions by Eric Helland; and a monograph by Todd Zywicki on public-choice theory of tort reform. Additionally, the Center hosts regular public conferences addressing contemporary legal issues. Recent conferences on the Vioxx settlement, the future of federalism, and off-label drug marketing have garnered national attention. In September 2008, Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit delivered the Center’s annual Gauer Distinguished Lecture, in which he addressed the history of Supreme Court decisions on antitrust laws.

Constitutionalism

Michael S. Greve, AEI’s John G. Searle Scholar, works primarily on constitutional issues. His major current project is a book on the Constitution’s structure and logic, tentatively entitled Constitutional Choices. Mr. Greve writes AEI’s Constitutional Outlook and organizes and hosts the Legal Center’s conferences and roundtable discussions. Recent events include a September 2008 conference entitled “The Future of Federalism,” which brought together legal minds from top universities to discuss the contemporary role of federalism, and a panel discussion on the Roberts Court’s docket of business-related cases. In addition, Mr. Greve heads the newly inaugurated AEI Transatlantic Law Forum (TLF), a U.S.-European community of scholars, jurists, and practicing lawyers dedicated to promoting a better understanding of constitutionalism and constitutions on both sides of the Atlantic. In October 2008, the TLF hosted a two-day conference on citizenship in Europe and the United States, with prominent scholars and jurists from Italy, Germany, England, France, and the United States. An AEI book featuring original papers presented at the conference is scheduled for publication in May.

Demography

Population trends have long been a cornerstone of social, economic, geopolitical, and environmental concern. Nicholas Eberstadt studies a number of demographic issues; in particular, he is a leading expert on HIV, and he is currently researching the spread and consequences of the disease in Asia, Russia, and sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, Mr. Eberstadt studies the strategic impact of Chinese demographic trends, such as aging, mortality, and rising imbalances in birth-sex ratios. AEI also promotes demographic studies through the AEI Press, and by hosting public conferences. In September 2008, AEI hosted a conference entitled, "'Missing Girls' in Asia: Magnitudes, Implications, and Possible Responses" to discuss the unnatural imbalances between the number of baby boys and baby girls in many Asian socities. Representatives from the United States State Department and the World Bank spoke at the event.

Culture and Freedom

One of the biggest challenges facing modern societies is maintaining a culture in which virtue flourishes in tandem with freedom and material progress. AEI’s W. H. Brady Program in Culture and Freedom addresses this challenge and analyzes modern American social and cultural trends. In April 2008, AEI published Religion and the American Future, a collection of essays presented at an AEI workshop that brought together an array of thinkers from a variety of disciplines to examine rising secularism in the West. Other recent books by AEI scholars in this area include No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers, by Michael Novak, and We the People: The Story of Our Constitution, a children’s book by Lynne V. Cheney. Christina Hoff Sommers is leading a project to consider the role of women in science, which will culminate in an edited volume of essays. David Gelernter writes on Jewish thought, American culture and religion, technology, and artificial intelligence. Leon R. Kass, a former member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, researches various issues including the right to human dignity and the tensions between modern science and biblical religion. Arthur C. Brooks, who succeeded Christopher DeMuth as AEI’s president this month, writes about the connections between culture, politics, and economic life in America. In April 2008, Basic Books published his latest book, Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America. Mr. Brooks is currently working on The Virtue of Vice, which sets out overwhelming evidence that moderate indulgence, not abstinence, makes us healthier, happier, and richer.

Social Welfare

AEI’s current research on social welfare and welfare policy focuses on state welfare and Medicaid policy reforms under the federal Welfare Reform Act of 1996; the effectiveness of federal nutrition, rehabilitation, and vocational training programs; and efforts to restore the social and economic fabric of inner-city communities. Douglas J. Besharov and Nicholas Eberstadt are examining the measurement and true definition of poverty by assessing alternative measures of income, consumption, and other indicators of material well-being. Mr. Besharov is conducting several studies on marriage and cohabitation as avenues off welfare; and he will soon publish a study of international income and poverty trends, entitled Income Transfers Won’t Eradicate Poverty. Mr. Eberstadt just completed an important new monograph entitled, The Poverty of “The Poverty Rate”: Measure and Mismeasure of Want in Modern America.

Education

AEI’s Education Policy Studies Program conducts original research on key issues that shape education reform, such as the No Child Left Behind Act, school financing and parental choice, educational accountability, curricular standards, teacher collective bargaining, and college financial aid. It also seeks ways to “emancipate” education by encouraging innovation that can develop solutions to the sector’s long-term challenges. In September, Frederick M. Hess released The Future of Educational Entrepreneurship: Possibilities for School Reform, which examines the barriers inhibiting school choice programs. Additionally, Mr. Hess recently edited When Research Matters: How Scholarship Influences Education Policy, and he published “The Leadership Limbo,” a groundbreaking study of collective bargaining agreements in the nation’s fifty largest school districts. Lynne V. Cheney contributes to AEI’s education program by writing and lecturing on classroom instruction and curricular reform. Douglas J. Besharov studies preschool education as a factor in early childhood development, career and technical education as an alternative to college, and the effects of college financial aid formulas. Last fall, Charles Murray released his provocative book, Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing American Schools Back to Reality, which takes a critical look at the American educational system and proposes major reform.

National Research Initiative

Launched in 2002, the National Research Initiative (NRI) advances AEI’s commitment to limited but energetic government by engaging outside academics and independent scholars on pressing domestic policy issues. Lawrence M. Mead is focusing special attention on the lessons from welfare reform in the 1990s and how they can be applied to future social policy for nonworking men. Edward L. Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko have just published Rethinking Federal Housing Policy, a book that analyzes government intervention in the housing market. NRI also supports a series of monographs on economic well-being and inequality that is directed by visiting scholar Steven J. Davis. The latest release in this series, Prices, Poverty, and Inequality: Why Americans Are Better Off Than You Think, by Christian Broda and David E. Weinstein, describes the failure of poverty measurements and argues that real wages, when adjusted for product innovation and the substitution of goods, have increased dramatically since the 1970s. Visiting scholar Richard Burkhauser is investigating how public policies affect the economic behavior and well-being of vulnerable populations. He is working on a monograph on U.S. disability insurance policy. A complete list of NRI projects can be found at www.aei.org/nri/.

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