The Central Paradox of the Digital Age

Civilizations are mortal. Some rise to meet their challenges, others collapse and disappear into history. Why do some posses the capacity to change, and others not? Jared Diamond warns that the Anthropocentric Age, in which the human species for the first time is the dominant influence on the planet, could end up like the extinct Maya, terminating our civilization's accomplishments if we don't squarely face our ecological challenges. Bruce Mau, like Alvin Toffler, sees hope in the “distributed power” enabled by new technologies. Jared Cohen and Eric Schmidt examine the paradoxes of the digital age which has transformed how we live our lives in every respect.     

Social policy in rich and poor countries: socio-economic trends and political-institutional determinants

Abstract. To what extent can the dramatic differences in social policy efforts in rich and poor countries be accounted for by genuinely political explanations? The hypothesis that is advanced in this article rests upon the combination of two schools of thought in comparative social policy analysis: socioeconomic models which focus attention on levels of economic wealth, need and demand for social security, and models of a comparative-historiographic and political-institution-alist nature. Empirical applications of socio-economic models with lagged dependent variables reveal the existence of two deviant families of nations: overspenders in social policy (such as overspenders of socialdemocratic complexion and of Christian democratic composition) and underspenders (such as the superpowers in East and West as well as Japan and East Germany). The residuals that can be derived from these models are amenable to an explanation which resides in comparative-historiographic political analysis of social policy.     

The Quest for a Coherent School Science Curriculum: The Need for an Organizing Principle

Achievement test results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) suggest that the performance of US students in science is not strong either in terms of international or national standards. Yet, the US is preceived as a world leader in standards‐based and “hands‐on” science reform. In this article I argue that the major policy issue confronting the science community that addresses this apparent disconnect is the development of an organizing principle that would serve to limit the number of essential topics, subordinating some topics in science standards to others. Furthermore, this organizing principle would weave the reduced set of topics into a sequence that is logical and that leads to an unfolding of a key story or stories in science that are intrinsically interesting to students and that provide the basis for understanding science by future literate citizens and not just the memorization of isolated facts to be forgotten when school finishes.     

The Decline of Traditional State Dirigisme in France: The Transformation of Political Economic Policies and Policymaking Processes

During the Mitterrand years, successive governments' policies of deregulation and privatization have progressively deprived the state of many of its traditional interventionist instruments. As a result of this, as well as of the internationalization of world trade and the economic integration of Europe, French business has become more independent of the state as well as more interdependent. With these changes in both business and government have come a concomitant transformation in French policymaking processes, such that the traditionally heroic government policies formulated absent business input have been succeeded by more everyday ones, where business for the most part leads and government follows.     

“Openness Must Be the Norm”

The other great transformation in the world besides the rising power of the emerging economies has been the ever deeper penetration of the Internet in civil society and the economy. Alone among world leaders, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has sought to address the sticky issue of how to “civilize the Internet” in the G‐8, a key forum of global governance which France chairs this year. As a kind of historical document, in this section we publish Sarkozy's speech to the leading information technologists and entrepreneurs he gathered in Paris in May for the first “e‐G‐8” Summit. Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, was among the attendees. We include his report to the 21st Century Council of the Nicolas Berggruen Institute.