Jean Bethke Elshtain, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller professor in the Divinity School, chairs the Council on Civil Society, a joint project of the Divinity School and the New York-based Institute for American Values. For Elshtain, the most important recommendations concern children, education, and commerce. She supports family-friendly changes in the tax code, strong civics instruction in primary and secondary schools, and flexible workplace arrangements. Elshtain hopes the attention drawn by the report, which has spurred articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other major papers since its release in May, will spark public debate over not just what social policies should be enacted but also over what principles should guide them.
Social environments work in a similar way.
You won't see the effects of destructive individual actions for a long time-until the system starts to crash. Elshtain says the council plans to revisit the report in six months to determine which recommendations have the best chances for implementation.