Word: rothenberger
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Rothenberg is merely the latest John Naisbitt apostle scurrying to discover, the latest mega trend. As the term has evolved, it has come to take into account almost every purported new idea under the Democratic Sun. Hence Jim Hunt's intensive efforts on the part of education in his home state of North Carolina are seen as one manifestation of the new philosophy, and James Fallow' 70 work on military reform comes under the classification as well. Facile nomenclature is slung around this book with case, as we learn that neoliberals esteem, among other people and principles: decentralization, investment, microeconomics...
There is, after slogging through Rothenberg's exhaustive survey of the neoliberal agenda, almost nothing that emerges as characteristic, except perhaps a cautious pragmatism. Anyone who professes the slightest skepticism for traditional' Democratic interest group politics can join the club. Content to spout generalities about, basically, the current generation of new Democratic leaders, Rothenberg fails to articulate a set of first principles for this newism. And so he fails to support one of the principal tenets of his book--that we are dealing with a new American political ideology...
...WHAT? one can fairly ask, Rothenberg may be over-zealous in promoting neoliberalism as a coherent ideology, but if the idea is good, why knock it? And there are, after all, some pretty good ideas that have emanated from the writers, intellectuals and politicians Rothenberg calls neoliberal. The idea has gotten out--it's hardly a surprise--that maybe the traditional Democratic approaches to things aren't always the best--that there are limits and trade-offs to be made on environmental and economic issues: that entreprencurs aren't all that had and lawyers may be overrated; and that liberals...
...method of neoliberalism that strikes one not only as muddle-headed, but also a tad naive. Rothenberg writes, correctly, of the frustration of many of the new breed of Democrats with the traditional party dependence on interest groups, i.e. big labor. He notes the explicit appeal--as was amply demonstrated by Gary Hart's presidential pitch--to rise above this sectarian approach to things, to realize that governing does not mean pandering piecemeal to every possible constituency. And he properly makes the comment that all this being said, the call for the "national interest" as opposed to the "special interest...
...Rothenberg, unfortunately, does not push his skepticism far enough. In appealing to pragmatism and rising above the special interests, the neoliberals act as if they were the first to dream up some of their schemes to, for example, reform the military or revive growth; their approach often borders on extreme arrogance. The military reformers talk with some merit, about the necessity for liberals to take defense matters more seriously and they exhort the Army to improve cohesion and morale, never bad advice. But they they ignore the long stream of institutional interests in the subject that has been stymied simply...