On Thinking Institutionally (On Politics)
In On Thinking Institutionally, one of the country's preeminent political scientists offers important reflections on morally responsible governance and on the forces economic, political, and cultural that make good governance so challenging in our time. Heclo reminds us that political office must not be separated from its original meaning of duty and that institutions provide an opportunity to bring practical necessities and moral requirements together to serve the common good. --William A. Galston, Senior Fellow, The Brookings InstitutionOn Thinking Institutionally is in the best tradition of Tocqueville an updated critique of the individualism that has been America s strength and its weakness. Hugh Heclo focuses attention upon an aspect of modernity that has been too long neglected: the failure of our institutions social, political, religious, economic to elicit any sense of loyalty, and thus the volatility and frailty of society itself. --Gertrude HimmelfarbHugh Heclo has written an eloquent defense of the enduring importance of authoritative institutions to human life, public and private. In an era suffused with so much noise, Heclo quietly reminds us that institutions serve that which is distinctively human, a life in community. --Jean Bethke Elshtain, Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, The University of Chicago, author Democracy on Trial and many other books