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About
the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy
The Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, a part of
the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland,
was established in 1976 to conduct research into the values
and concepts that underlie public policy. Most studies concerned
with public policy are empirical: they assess costs, describe
constituencies, and gather data with the goal of making
predictions. Though the Institute frames its research questions
by looking carefully at empirical data, its own work is
primarily conceptual and normative. It investigates the
structure of arguments and the nature of values relevant
to the formation, justification, and criticism of public
policy. Through its publications and its Web site, the Institute
seeks to clarify and contribute to public discussion.
In 1998 the Institute, in conjunction with the Department
of Government and Politics, the Department of Philosophy,
and the School of Public Affairs, formed the Committee on
Politics, Philosophy, and Public Policy, an interdisciplinary
graduate specialization and research consortium at the University
of Maryland. Under the auspices of the Committee, Institute
scholars teach with other faculty in a proseminar for graduate
students from various disciplines, focusing on such topics
as theories of justice, institutional and constitutional
design, the nature of democracy, and rational choice theory.
They also participate in a biweekly workshop in which faculty,
visitors, and graduate students present their research.
In several departments of the University, Institute scholars
have long taught graduate and undergraduate courses in philosophy
of law, political philosophy, and bioethics.
Research
The Institute examines topics of current interest as well
as those that promise to be important in public policy debates
in the coming decades. Research is conducted by individual
resident scholars and by interdisciplinary working groups
composed of philosophers, political scientists, sociologists,
and historians. This diversity permits a comprehensive examination
of the complex issues that the Institute explores. The Institute
has special strengths in the following fields:
Politics and Civic Life
In recent years, the Institute has devoted considerable
attention to civil society -- the realm of voluntary associations
conceptually distinct from the market and the state -- and
its role in fostering the norms, habits, and attitudes that
support democracy. Much of this work has taken place under
the aegis of the National Commission on Civic Renewal, whose
1998 report, A Nation of Spectators, examined long-term
trends in political participation, social trust, voluntarism,
and family stability. In addition to providing staff support
for the Commission and producing its Index of National Civic
Health, the Institute convened a scholars' working group
whose members explored the relationship between civil society
and the state, the moral effects of associational life,
historical patterns of civic participation by women and
African Americans, and the analytical framework offered
by civil society theorists such as Robert Putnam.
Institute scholars have studied the American political
system and its tendencies to encourage or frustrate public
participation. Recent articles have looked at campaign finance,
the influence of political consultants, and the role of
public deliberation in policy making. In essays on media
ethics and the advent of public journalism, the Institute
has critically examined standard conceptions of the journalist's
social responsibilities and the meaning of objectivity.
Current research focuses on the relation between the Internet
and civil society, the ways in which scientists and non-experts
interact in the context of public deliberation, the function
of labor unions in a democracy, value pluralism and liberal
theory, and the influence of sports on moral character and
civic life.
In
2002, Institute scholars received a $4.57 million grant
from The Pew Charitable Trusts to found a new institution,
the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning
and Engagement (CIRCLE), which studies and makes grants
on the subject of young Americans' civic and political engagement.
This project reflects a long-standing and growing interest
in civic education and moral development. See www.civicyouth.org.
In
recent years, several Institute scholars have written and
conducted joint projects on the relationship between the
Internet and politics and/or civil society. In addition
to writing various articles, they organized a conference,
funded by the Ford Foundation, to explore creating a new
institution, the "Public Telecommunications Service"
that would support civic uses of the Internet. Institute
scholars have since launched a pilot project to further
this goal, the "Prince George's County Information
Commons". This is an experimental voluntary association
of young people and others who use the Internet to strenghten
the community surrounding the University of Maryland. See
www.princegeorges.org.
Diversity, Identity, and Equal Opportunity
Institute scholars have written extensively about the
nature of, and remedies for, discrimination on the basis
of race or ethnicity, gender, and disability. In 1997, an
entire issue of the Institute's quarterly Report was devoted
to "The Affirmative Action Debate," with articles on the
legal history of affirmative action in employment and education,
the practical and ethical complexities surrounding merit-based
selection, and the invocation of diversity as a rationale
for affirmative action. That same year, an Institute research
group (collaborating with a University of Maryland demographer)
assessed a controversial proposal to include a "multiracial"
category on the U.S. Census form. In a memorandum to the
Office of Management and Budget, which oversees the Census,
the Institute group endorsed an alternative proposal, arguing
that people should be given the option to "mark one or more"
of the existing racial categories. OMB ultimately adopted
this alternative.
The Institute has recently begun to address a broad range
of issues in the conceptualization and social perception
of disability and impairment, and to evaluate competing
views of what constitutes justice for people with disabilities.
Much of its research in this area has focused on the Americans
with Disabilities Act, which seeks to end a long history
of "pervasive discrimination." Institute scholars have compared
the forms of social restructuring required by the ADA with
those mandated by other civil rights legislation, as well
as those required by various schemes of distributive justice.
They have also begun to examine quality-of-life measures
for people with disabilities, asking what these measures
assume about the impact of impairment on well-being and
how they might affect allocation of health care and other
social goods.
Issues of diversity and equality have also entered into
the Institute's work on education policy. One current project
considers the ethics of university admissions, assessing
the role of higher education in promoting social mobility.
A 1994 collection of essays examined the impact of multiculturalism
on the teaching of history and literature, and more generally
on civic and moral education. A work in progress explores
the links between multiculturalism and leading trends in
postmodernist thought.
Human Rights, Development Ethics, and
International Justice
Early in its history, scholars at the Institute produced
a series of books and articles on the nature of human rights
and their relevance to the conduct of American foreign policy.
More recently, the Institute has assessed challenges to
the universality of human rights -- challenges made in the
name of cultural diversity as well as national sovereignty.
It has also examined the complex relations between human
rights protection, economic development, and democratization.
Recent articles have analyzed arguments for giving priority
to social and economic rights over civil and political rights
(or vice versa). Other related work has focused on women's
rights in developing countries, nationalism, and international
obligations with respect to world hunger.
In 1997, the Institute initiated an ambitious project
on the ethical dimensions of transitional justice. This
project focuses on the dilemmas confronting new democracies
as they decide what, if anything, they should do about past
violations of human rights, whether these violations were
committed by a prior government, by its opponents, or by
combatants in an internal armed conflict. The Institute
seeks to clarify the goals of transitional justice, to explore
trade-offs between these goals in particular contexts, and
to assess the various instruments -- from criminal tribunals
to truth commissions to public monuments -- that nations
may adopt in their efforts to reckon with past wrongs. By
collaborating with scholars and political leaders in emerging
democracies, the Institute hopes to foster the institution-building
and public deliberation that transitional justice in these
nations will require.
The Institute has also become an important forum for international
development ethics, challenging conventional understandings
of what constitutes successful development and offering
a normative assessment of relations between rich and poor
countries. This work has provided an intellectual foundation
for major research projects on population and consumption.
In a 1994 conference on "Consumption, Global Stewardship,
and the Good Life," and in a subsequent anthology, Institute
members and guest scholars have analyzed and offered an
ethical assessment of global consumption practices, investigating
the impact of these practices on the environment, quality
of life, and international justice. A current project examines
whether it would be feasible to measure the standard of
living in a society not by calculating how much money people
earn, but by looking at the extent to which their income
is adequate to satisfy core economic needs.
Biotechnology and Genetic Research
The Institute has analyzed the impact of biotechnology
on a wide range of moral concepts and social practices.
One of its goals has been to articulate and assess public
anxieties about biotechnology, while identifying serious
concerns that have been neglected in the public debate.
In particular, Institute scholars have considered the effects
of the new reproductive technologies on definitions of family
and parenthood. A widely noted essay on the prospect of
human cloning examined morally relevant differences between
this technology and other forms of assisted reproduction.
It also observed how the cloning debate had been shaped
by public perceptions regarding the centrality of genes
to human development and identity.
In related work, Institute scholars have published widely
on the challenges posed by contemporary genetics to established
notions of privacy and confidentiality, and on the responsibilities
of health care professionals with respect to genetic information.
Are the results of genetic tests any more private or confidential
than other types of medical and personal information? Must
genetic counselors refrain from expressing value judgments
in order to safeguard their patients' autonomy? Is there
such a thing as a patient's "right to know" the results
of genetic tests, or are there cases in which physicians
can ethically withhold information?
Other projects have examined controversial applications
of genetic technology to criminal justice. For example,
Institute scholars were among the first to point out the
powerful exculpatory potential of DNA typing, and the need
to assess its impact on prevailing investigative and adjudicative
practices. The Institute has also addressed the public controversy
over research attempting to identify genetic factors in
criminal behavior, assessing the historical legacy of such
research, its objectives and intended applications, and
the bases of scientific and political opposition to it.
Looking beyond the immediate controversy, Institute scholars
have considered whether the discovery of genetic influences
on impulsive, aggressive, and violent behavior would pose
any greater threat to the ascription of responsibility,
or have any greater potential to mitigate blame or punishment,
than a recognition of environmental pressures and constraints.
Health Policy and the Goals of Medicine
The Institute has long been interested in how scientists
and policy makers define health and disease, and how definitions
might change in response to advances in medical diagnosis
and explanation. For example, certain conditions that were
once regarded as a normal part of aging are now regarded
as diseases. As a result, the distinction between growing
old and acquiring diseases threatens to disappear. Meanwhile,
it is increasingly clear that some conditions, such as asymptomatic
genetic susceptibilities, do not easily fit into the category
of health or disease. Uncertainties in our classification
schemes are significant because they may affect how we understand
the goals of medicine. New conceptions of aging may influence
the nature of, and motivation for, the care we provide to
the elderly. Our view of what constitutes a disease or disability
may determine whether we regard certain uses of genetic
techniques and other medical interventions as therapy or
enhancement.
The Institute has recently expanded its interest in this
area to examine conceptual and ethical issues in the measurement
of health and disease. Health economists and demographers
are now developing quantitative measures of a population's
health, for a variety of comparative purposes. These summary
measures will play a critical role in shaping health policy
and in evaluating the distribution of health care resources.
Institute scholars are examining the conceptions of health
and disease that underlie these metrics and their relation
to prevailing medical conceptions of health and disease.
Their work investigates whether health should be understood
narrowly, in terms of biological functioning, or whether
it involves a much richer notion of human flourishing or
well-being, which may be less amenable to quantification.
Natural Environments, Human Communities
The Institute has conducted a sustained review of the
approaches taken by ecological science and economics to
environmental protection. In a variety of projects, Institute
scholars have argued that environmental policy raises important
and difficult questions in politics, ethics, and aesthetics
that are too often misconstrued as narrowly scientific or
technical. They have also explored issues common to environmental
protection, on the one hand, and the preservation or restoration
of human cultures and communities, on the other. What does
it mean to "restore" an ecosystem or a city, when it is
neither possible nor desirable to return it to a prior historical
state? Can we be faithful to the past without attempting
to replicate it? In their efforts to make these questions
more concrete, Institute scholars have worked closely with
organizers of ecological and urban restoration projects,
looking at their implicit criteria of success and exploring
the conflicts and trade-offs they face.
The Institute has also looked at the social and political
context of environmental decision making. As part of their
ongoing research into civil society and the role of expertise
in the formulation of public policy, Institute scholars
have studied the devolution of environmental regulatory
authority from federal agencies to local jurisdictions or
stakeholder groups. This research examines the legitimacy
of trends toward negotiated regulations, decentralization
of decision making, and transference from the private to
the public sector of various organizational strategies intended
to secure greater effectiveness, flexibility, and accountability.
In other studies, Institute scholars have considered how
advances in biotechnology may be altering conceptions of
nature, undermining familiar distinctions between the natural
and the cultural, the wild and the domestic. One series
of essays explores the patenting of genes and other products
of nature as human inventions. Another considers aesthetic
and ethical problems that arise when biotechnology "perfects"
nature, for example, in devising flowers that will not fade
and fish that can withstand disease and pollution. Biotechnology
as applied to agriculture has posed questions concerning
food safety and labeling, which the Institute is studying
in a project on the implementation of the Food Quality Safety
Act.
Publications
Please see our publications
page for detailed information about books and articles by
Institute members, Maryland Studies in Public Philosophy,
Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Public Policy, our working
paper series, and Philosophy and
Public Policy Quarterly.
Staff
Mark Sagoff, Interim Director
David A. Crocker, Research Scholar
Robert K. Fullinwider, Research Scholar
Peter Levine, Research Scholar
Xiaorong Li, Research Scholar
Judith Lichtenberg, Research Scholar
Jerome M. Segal, Research Scholar
Robert Wachbroit, Research Scholar
David Wasserman, Research Scholar
Verna Gehring, Editor
Carroll Linkins, Program Specialist
Barbara Cronin, Business Manager
Support
The Institute has received support from the Lynde and
Harry Bradley Foundation, the Exxon Education Foundation,
the Ford Foundation, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, the
Charles F. Kettering Foundation, the John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Foundation, the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation,
the Maryland Bar Foundation, the Maryland Humanities Council,
Maryland Sea Grant, the National Endowment for the Humanities,
the National Institutes of Health, the National Science
Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Prudential Foundation,
the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation,
the Florence and John Schumann Foundation, the Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the United States
Institute of Peace, and the University of Maryland.
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