I. Lecture topics II. Themes for discussion III. Research paper topics

Written by Dr. Robert S. Weisbrot, Christian A. Johnson Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at Colby College and author of Freedom Bound: A History of America’s Civil Rights Movement (1991) and John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis (forthcoming).

The Government’s Greatest Achievements of the Past Half Century report can provide a powerful tool for classroom use in two crucial and mutually reinforcing ways. First, the ranking of government endeavors can prompt reflections on how scholars evaluate government programs. Therefore students can compare their own judgments with those of historians and political scientists, and with the survey’s weighting of different components (difficulty, importance, and success) in gauging a policy’s overall effectiveness. Such consideration of specific programs can, in turn, help students understand the interplay of "objective" analysis and personal values in assessing the merits and limitations of government.

Beyond the individual rankings, the Government’s Greatest Achievements of the Past Half Century report comments broadly on the preconditions for effective government action, the implications for partisan politics, and the present prospects for great government achievement. The report’s observations can provoke students to think more deeply, in class discussions, analytical essays, and research papers, about the possibilities and limits of peaceful democratic change in American society.

I. Lecture topics
A single lecture keyed to the Government’s Greatest Achievements of the Past Half Century report can address the questions, "What has made for success in government endeavor? What has made for failure?" The professor can draw students into the subject by first highlighting endeavors that rank high and those that rank low (or fail to score) among the top fifty. This strategy can lead the class into exploring one or more programs that illustrate lessons of the report. For example, how did government "Ensure Safe Food and Drinking Water" (#6) through a mix of sound statutes and consistent strategies, sustained by a durable bipartisan consensus? How did the lack of such indispensable ingredients thwart the government’s drive to "Expand Job Training and Placement" (#43)? Such specific, comparative analyses can set up the professor’s broad conclusions about what conditions and approaches make for effective Federal action.

If the syllabus features several lectures keyed to the report, these can successively explore government endeavors of varying effectiveness. For example, one lecture can analyze why measures to "Expand the Right to Vote" (#2) proved such a momentous and lasting success. Another lecture can examine why, by contrast, the recurrent crusades to "Reduce Crime" (#36) exerted only middling effect. A third lecture can address why legislation to "Increase the Supply of Low-Income Housing" (#45) bore such disappointing, often counterproductive, results. Each lecture can build on the one(s) before by contrasting the problems, policies, and public attitudes that enabled some endeavors to achieve more than others.

Alternatively, each lecture can fix on a different theme of the Government’s Greatest Achievements of the Past Half Century report. The professor can devote a week’s lectures to explaining, in turn, the respective roles of bipartisan consensus, clear and consistent strategies, and ongoing commitment in fostering government endeavors. The lecture on bipartisan consensus, for example, can examine selected programs that enjoyed broad support, such as those to "Promote Scientific and Technological Research" (#13) and "Strengthen the National Defense" (#17), as well as those that failed to muster such support, such as the statutes to "Improve Mass Transportation" (#47) and "Improve Government Performance" (#41). Why were some endeavors able to summon and sustain a consensus for decisive action, and how did this consensus contribute to their success? Why did the latter endeavors fail to muster such support, and how did this failure restrict their impact?

As a third approach, successive lectures can explore the origins, character, and impact of government endeavors in different periods. For example, the professor can devote lectures to the immediate postwar era, which gave rise to the #1 endeavor, to "Rebuild Europe After World War II"; the 1960s, featuring the burst of "Great Society" reforms in race relations, environmental protection, aid to education, health care, and aid to the poor; and the 1990s, to address concretely the report’s bleak assessment of the present fitness of government for strong and sustained endeavor.

II. Themes for discussion
Here are suggested discussion topics for one or more classes. Their common aim is to employ the Government’s Greatest Achievements of the Past Half Century report as a springboard to examine specific programs as well as broad themes of national politics during the past half century and in our own day.

1. President Jimmy Carter declared in his State of the Union address on January 19, 1978, "Government cannot solve our problems… [I]t cannot eliminate poverty or provide a bountiful economy or reduce inflation or save our cities or cure illiteracy or provide energy." In light of the Government’s Greatest Achievements of the Past Half Century report, does President Carter’s statement seem good advice to Americans to lower their expectations of government?



2. In his first inaugural address, on January 20, 1981, President Ronald Reagan summed up the hostility many conservatives felt toward "big government" by asserting, "Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem." Ask students whether, in their judgment, the Government’s Greatest Achievements of the Past Half Century report bears out Reagan’s cynicism toward federal regulation, spending, and planning?
   
   
3. The report observes that evaluating specific endeavors involves broad judgments about what really constitutes achievement: "Some might argue that success alone defines achievement, even if that success involves unimportant problems. Others might suggest that success is trivial unless it occurs on important problems, even if those problems are easy to solve. Still others might maintain that achievement is a word best reserved for success on important, difficult problems that the private and nonprofit sectors cannot solve on their own."

4. The focus on legislation as a yardstick of government endeavor encompasses a wide range of goals, programs, and accomplishments. Ask students to consider whether additional yardsticks may bring to light other crucial achievements. For example, many scholars believe that preserving the integrity of the democratic process is the single most important function of government, and that the congressional hearings on Watergate and the Iran-Contra affair were therefore vital landmarks in government endeavor. Would students agree? Can they think of other achievements or other yardsticks of federal action (e.g., executive orders, court rulings, etc.) to complement those in the Brookings survey?
   
   
5. The Government’s Greatest Achievements of the Past Half Century report concludes that the survey results disprove "the notion that the federal government creates more problems than it solves. To the contrary, the ratings clearly suggest that the federal government is fully capable of tackling important, tough problems, and succeeding."

6. While the Government’s Greatest Achievements of the Past Half Century report lauds past government achievements, it doubts "whether government will ever be so bold again," and asks, "Are the nation’s leaders so worried about losing their jobs that they will not take the risks embedded in the kind of inherently risky projects that reached the top ten list above? Are Americans so impatient for success that no program, however well designed and justified, can outlast the early difficulties that face so many innovative efforts? And are the media so addicted to stories of government failure that no endeavor, however noble and well designed, can survive long enough to achieve results?"

7. In this millennial election year, candidates hammered at the momentous choices facing the nation. But if, as the report finds, "government’s greatest endeavors reflect a stunning level of bipartisan commitment," does this claim suggest that the significance of elections is actually quite modest, despite contrary views by the public, the media, and the parties themselves. Do students think it greatly matters who wins the White House or which party controls the Congress if, as the report concludes, meaningful initiatives will result only from sustained cooperation between the President and the Congress, and between Democrats and Republicans?
   
   
8. The Brookings report observes that the 450 respondents among historians and political scientists surveyed "is hardly representative of the American public as a whole…." Instead it was "weighted toward whites (90 percent), males (77 percent), liberals (65 percent), and Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents (82 percent)." According to the report, men and women divided in ranking the importance of various endeavors, as did younger and older respondents. Political leanings also shaped historical judgments: "Liberals and Democrats rated expanding voting rights, increasing access to health care for low-income Americans, and reducing workplace discrimination as more important problems than conservatives and Republicans, and reducing the budget deficit as a more successful endeavor. Conversely, conservatives and Republicans rated expanding trade and controlling immigration as more important problems than liberals and Democrats, and ensuring safe food and drinking water, enhancing workplace safety, protecting the wilderness, reducing hunger and improving nutrition, and improving air quality as more successful endeavors."

III. Research paper topics
The questions listed for class discussion can also serve as subjects for analytical essays, in which students draw on evidence in the Government’s Greatest Achievements of the Past Half Century report, lectures, current events, and personal judgments about American politics and society. Professors may also (or alternatively) assign papers that require additional reading on one or more government endeavors. Here are suggestions for research related to the survey data and insights in the Brookings report.

1. The Brookings report observes that nearly all of the government’s fifty greatest achievements involve "tight collections of laws organized around a consistent strategy for addressing a focused problem such as crime, water quality, or arms control and disarmament." Evaluate this statement by examining the laws and programs associated with one of the government’s endeavors. How did advocates of each statute associated with this endeavor explain its purpose? Were their statements about their aims and approaches consistent with each other? Were they consistent over time, from one statute to the next? To what extent did their ability to fashion a coherent strategy affect the outcome of this endeavor?
   
   
2. The Brookings report observes that some endeavors "involve eclectic collections of individual statutes or a more diffuse problem." Ask students to investigate the operation of laws and programs for one of these "eclectic collections," such as the effort to "Improve Mass Transportation" (#47), "Control Immigration" (#49) or "Reduce Disease" (#4). Does the range of approaches seem to the student to reflect imagination and flexibility, or simply confusion? On balance, did the profusion of approaches help or hinder this endeavor?
   
   
3. The Brookings report observes that "most of government’s greatest endeavors involved a relatively large number of statutes passed over a relatively long period of time." Apart from a few tightly focused endeavors (like promoting equal access to public accommodations and increasing access to health care for older Americans), successful endeavors are marked by a succession of statutes. "Promoting financial security in retirement involved the largest number of individual statutes at 21, followed by stabilizing agricultural price supports at 19, increasing assistance to the working poor at 15, increasing the supply of low-income housing, ensuring an adequate energy supply, and improving mass transportation all at 14. Almost by definition, great endeavors demand great endurance."

4. The Brookings report finds it "difficult to give any single president, party, or Congress the primary credit for launching and maintaining more than a handful of the endeavors." While just fourteen endeavors "can be credited primarily to" presidents of just one party, "the rest span Democratic and Republican administrations."

5. The Brookings report finds that "only 13 of the 50 [top government achievements] involved targeted benefits for a specific group of Americans such as the elderly, poor, veterans, or racial minorities. The rest diffused benefits across society more generally. Great endeavors do not appear to require any particular strategies, but do appear to thrive on wide distribution of impacts."

   If consensus for an endeavor ordinarily requires a "wide distribution" of benefits, what can explain the exceptions? Students might select an endeavor that "targeted benefits for a specific group," and investigate how its advocates secured the broad support needed for enduring impact?
   
   

6. During the 1950s President Dwight D. Eisenhower cautioned against federal efforts to force the pace of desegregation, saying, "You cannot legislate morality." Yet efforts to curb discrimination rank high among government’s greatest achievements, including the laws to "Reduce Workplace Discrimination" (#5), "Promote Equal Access to Public Accommodations" (#3), and "Expand the Right to Vote" (#2). Track the history of one or more of these endeavors. Do you think the record of the past half century disproves Eisenhower’s warning, or does it reveal pitfalls in efforts to "legislate morality," whether in race relations or in other ways (e.g., drug legislation, limits on abortion, etc.)?
   
   
7. The #14-ranked achievement, the drive to "Contain Communism," underscores the challenge of evaluating government effectiveness. "Containment" was the dominant government concern for over forty years, from just after World War II until the early 1990s. Yet scholars as well as officials disagree sharply over the success, the need, and the costs. Some argue that containment was a military and a moral imperative; that U.S. leadership safeguarded international order and democracy against a pernicious ideology and an expansionist Soviet empire; and that the burdens were amply justified by the demands of national security. Others, though, find that the U.S. overreacted to real and imagined dangers; that the benefits of intervention in Vietnam, CIA coups and assassination plots, and a nuclear arms race were at best dubious; and that the resulting economic burdens and spiraling "military-industrial complex" so jeopardized the nation’s long-term health as to discredit claims of meaningful success.

   The polar views of "containment" raise questions not only about the effectiveness of this endeavor, but also about the possibility of applying objective standards for gauging all government achievement. As a way to probe these broad issues concretely, students can investigate the operation of one or more anticommunist measures. In addition to policies cited by the Brookings report, students can focus on what did this policy attempt, with what results, and at what cost?
   
   

8. The defense of freedom has been a recurrent theme in American foreign policy. In his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy proclaimed, "We shall pay any price, bear any burden… to assure the survival and the success of liberty." Over a quarter-century later, President Jimmy Carter echoed that mission in his own inaugural address, saying, "We can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere…. Our commitment to human rights must be absolute."

   Despite such stirring words, the effort to "Advance Human Rights and Provide Humanitarian Relief" ranks only 37th among government achievements. Ask students to examine one or more interventions for human rights, such as efforts during the past decade to provide food for Somalia and stop genocide in Kosovo. What can explain the disparity between the government’s rhetoric and its performance in this area? Were American leaders insincere in asserting a national commitment to universal human rights? Is safeguarding democracy, liberty, and even life in foreign countries simply too complex or costly to permit significant success?
   
   

9. The effort to "Rebuild Europe after World War II" ranks as the government’s greatest endeavor. Yet the effort to "Develop and Renew Impoverished Communities," including inner cities, ranks only 46^th among the top fifty government achievements. What can account for this disparity? Were conditions ripe for rebuilding Europe in a way that was not true, then or later, of America’s slums or languishing regions like Appalachia? Or did the government simply accord greater priority to helping foreign economies than its own underdeveloped areas? What policy lessons, if any, do students’ investigations suggest for our own day?
   
   
10. In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson declared an "unconditional war on poverty" and made this the centerpiece of his "Great Society," the most confident and ambitious reform crusade of the postwar era. Yet few anti-poverty programs appear among government’s greatest achievements. (The effort to "Reduce Hunger and Improve Nutrition," at #18, ranks highest, followed by programs to "Increase Low-Income Families’ Access to Health Care," at #34.) Why should this "unconditional "war" have had such limited results? Students can examine one or more anti-poverty measures, such as the Job Corps, Community Action Programs, and low-income housing, to account for the gap between expectations and performance. Do the findings suggest that ending poverty simply is an unrealistic ambition for government? If so, for what reasons? If not, what policy lessons can be drawn about the endeavors government can best undertake?