The Collapse of the Common Good
How America’s Lawsuit Culture Undermines our Freedom
In pursuit of fairness at any cost, we have created a society paralyzed by legal fear: Doctors are paranoid and principals powerless. Little league coaches, scared of liability, stop volunteering. Schools and hospitals start to crumble. The common good fades, replaced by a cacophony of people claiming their “individual rights.”
By turns funny and infuriating, this startling book dissects the dogmas of fairness that allow self-interested individuals to bully the rest of society. Philip K. Howard explains how, trying to honor individual rights, we removed the authority needed to maintain a free society. Teachers don’t even have authority to maintain order in the classroom. With no one in charge, the safe course is to avoid any possible risk. Seesaws and diving boards are removed. Ridiculous warning labels litter the American landscape: “Caution: Contents Are Hot.”
Striving to protect “individual rights,” we ended up losing much of our freedom. When almost any decision that someone disagrees with is a possible lawsuit, no one knows where he stands. A huge monument to the unknown plaintiff looms high above America, casting a dark shadow across our daily choices. Today, in the land of free speech, you’d have to be a fool to say what you really think.
This provocative book not only attacks the sacred cows of political correctness, but takes a breathtakingly bold stand on how to reinvigorate our common good. Only by restoring personal authority can schools begin to work again. Only by judges and legislatures taking back the authority to decide who can sue for what can doctors feel comfortable using their best judgment and American be liberated to say and do what they know is right. Lucid, honest, and hard hitting, The Collapse of the Common Good shows how Americans can bring back freedom and common sense to a society disabled by lawyers and legal fear.
Ballantine Books, 2002.
Reviews & Endorsements
“This book provides unique insight into important aspects of modern life. Philip Howard has a gift of clear vision into these vital issues, and is sure to provoke fresh debate on how our society is organized.”
– former U.S. Senator Howard Baker, Jr.
“Philip K. Howard’s book rings true. Teachers have such a hard time being themselves, dragging around the millstone of bureaucracy. Will all our well-intentioned efforts to regulate and manage our way to social welfare backfire, creating a society where people aren’t free to exercise their own judgment and good will?”
– Wendy Kopp, Founder and President of Teach for America
“You’ll never see America the same again….[This book is] like nothing you ever read, better even than The Death of Common Sense.”
– former Chairman and CEO of Time Inc. Andrew Heiskell
“[A] rich seam of anecdote…Howard writes well, punctuating his text with skillfully told tales and choice quotations from the good and wise.”
– Economist
“Howard is on to something….[He] makes his case through anecdotes, and he packs some powerful ones.”
– Washington Post
“This book sits at the center of important questions about frivolous litigiousness, disdain for authority, and the tendency of bureaucracy to stifle judgment and initiative.”
– New York Times Book Review