GDP per em-ployed person, France and Ger- many improve their relative standing. Even so, substantial dif-ferences in productivity remain.
To get a better picture of what is going on, the authors focus on the market economy (leaving out government, health, and educa- tion). This shows the United States still the leader in GDP per employed person, with Japan, surprisingly, pulling up the rear (with productivity in 1989 only 61 percent that of the United States). The explanation? While Japanese manufacturing...
Colleen A. Sheehan, in The William and Mary And Virtue Quarterly (Oct. 1992), Box 8781, Williamsburg, Va. 23187-
878 1.
Scholars in recent years have been vigorously debating the intellectual origins of the Found- ing Fathers' ideas. Did they derive mainly from the liberal philosophy of John Locke, the classi- cal republicanism of Plato and his heirs, the modern republicanism of Machiavelli, or other intellectual sources? The conventional view of James Madison (1751-1836), the "father" o...
op- ponents of the Constitution and resolutely fought off the draft's defenders (including Madison)."
It is true, Wills acknowledges, that Madison put rotation in his first draft of the Constitu- tion-but only as part of his initial effort to cut state legislatures completely out of the federal election system. Madison had been frustrated in the Continental Congress by the way in which the state legislatures tied the hands of the delegates they sent. His Virginia Plan pro- posed that the people...
'citizen legislators' and amateur administrators." That commentator's name? George Will.
Court Politics "The Supreme Court and Political Eras: A Perspective on Judi- cial Power in a Democratic Polity" John B. Taylor, in The Review of Politics (Summer 1992), ~kiv. of ~otre~ame,
P.O. Box B, Notre Dame, Ind. 46556.
Does the Supreme Court, as Mr. Dooley said, follow "th' iliction returns," or does it, as Jus- tice Robert H. Jackson complained in 1941, the very year he assumed...
'citizen legislators' and amateur administrators." That commentator's name? George Will.
Court Politics "The Supreme Court and Political Eras: A Perspective on Judi- cial Power in a Democratic Polity" John B. Taylor, in The Review of Politics (Summer 1992), ~kiv. of ~otre~ame,
P.O. Box B, Notre Dame, Ind. 46556.
Does the Supreme Court, as Mr. Dooley said, follow "th' iliction returns," or does it, as Jus- tice Robert H. Jackson complained in 1941, the very year he assumed...
some softer, albeit authoritar- ian, regime-like that, pre- cisely, of Singapore."
Unlike Japan, China seems
inclined to translate its eco- Human rights remains a hot issue dividing the United States and nomic gains into international China, but both nations want to avoid any disruption of relations.
influence. Despite the disap- pearance of the Soviet threat, Beijing has in- creased its official military budget 52 per-cent since 1989. It has exported nuclear technology to Iran and Pakistan,...
Thomas K. McCraw, in The American Scholar (Summer 1992), 181 1 Q St. N.W., Washing- OfNotions ton, D.C. 20009.
Communism has failed, capitalism has won, hour. Yet McCraw, a Harvard historian, doubts and Adam Smith (1723-90) is the hero of the that Smith's laissez-faire version of capitalism is the wave of the future.
Smith had a profound aver- sion to any form of collective action, McCraw notes. For him, individuals and markets were "natural," but institu- tions and organizational h...
Michael E. Porter, in Harvard Business Review
(Sept.-Oct. 19921, Boston, Mass. 02163.
Critics of America's economic performance Porter, who directed an extensive research have been saying for years that US. business is project sponsored the Council on Competi- too oriented toward the short term. Harvard's tiveness and the Harvard Business School,
WQ WINTER 1993 139
PERIODICALS
agrees and thinks he can explain the myopia.
The problem stems partly from the fact that publicly traded U.S. firms...
still only that. "The presence of knowledgeable major owners, bankers, customers, and suppli- ers on corporate boards has diminished," Por- ter notes. Nearly three-fourths of the directors of the largest U.S. corporations are outsiders, with little knowledge about or stake in the com- panies they oversee.
Lack of information about their businesses also hinders top corporate managers. Many
U.S. firms in recent decades have opted for a decentralized organizational structure involv- ing...