A Bright Spot in Congress: The Project for American Renewal

January-February 1996

By Stanley W. Carlson-Thies

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The conservative agenda now dominant in Congress is fundamentally incomplete. Despite red-hot rhetoric, the Republican revolution isn't so sweeping; its core initiatives—limiting government, shifting federal authority and funds to the states, and removing negative incentives from welfare—don't go far enough. America's social crisis requires a new public policy agenda that puts government on the side of private institutions battling the forces of despair and decay.

That's the accusation and the forceful challenge directed by Indiana Senator Dan Coats to his fellow Republicans and to the country. In early September he unveiled his Project for American Renewal at a Capitol Hill press conference and in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, joined both times by William Bennett, conservative leader and author of The Book of Virtues. The project is simultaneously a package of 18 bills, an alternative vision of the role of government in society, and an effort to deepen the public debate about government policy.

The bills fall into three groups. One group aims to promote character and strengthen families. Another set of bills seeks to foster community involvement by assisting states in collecting payments for restitution for crime victims, giving federal aid to community groups that partner with police, and requiring the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to transfer vacant housing to local governments for sale to community groups. The aim of a third set of bills is to encourage "effective compassion" through such means as giving a $500 tax credit to federal taxpayers who contribute to anti-poverty charities or provide home care to needy people.

The goal in each case is to promote the renewal of civil society—families, community groups, schools, private and religious charities. Senator Coats argues that government has helped to undermine these "value-shaping institutions" and that they will not spring back to full health now if we just get government out of the way. Government cannot create a healthy society, but it can encourage, protect, and support those institutions that play an indispensable role as society's "immune system" by stemming social breakdown and irresponsible personal behavior.

The Project has provoked much debate in Washington, exposing deep divisions within conservative ranks. "Organic" conservatives, who emphasize the importance of morality, culture, and public authority, have reacted positively to the proposal. "Libertarian" conservatives, on the other hand, simply see Big Government in a new guise in the Coats project. David Boaz of the Cato Institute states that Coats and Bennett "are still living in the Washington that Roosevelt built, the Washington where if you think of a good idea you create a government program."

From the perspective of the Center for Public Justice, the Coats' Project represents a very encouraging legislative effort to redirect government's role in society. American politics oscillates between promoting government as the cure-all for society's ills and damning it in favor of market forces and voluntary efforts. A strong commitment to structural pluralism entails that we acknowledge the distinct yet complementary roles of government and the many institutions of civil society.

It is important to remember that government doesn't relate to civil society only in the therapeutic and resource-transferring way emphasized by the Project. It is also responsible for making laws that help prevent—and not only help heal—social problems. Government, for instance, shouldn't only support effective ways to repair broken families, but (re)establish laws that strengthen the structures of existing marriages and families.

As it happens, the Project includes a bill to strengthen marriages by encouraging states to require a delay and counseling for parents seeking divorce and also a plan for school choice experiments. That suggests that the underlying conception of the Project for American Renewal may be better than the "empowerment" rhetoric that tends to obscure government's unique on-going responsibilities. In any case, by putting into public debate and onto the congressional agenda a stimulating alternative vision of government's responsibility, Senator Coats' project helps move America toward genuine renewal.

[Dr. Carlson-Thies is Senior Fellow at the Center for Public Justice.]