Philip K. Howard - Common Good

Common Good

In 2002, Howard formed Common Good, which advocates reforms to restore reliability to law and to rebuild authority structures needed to make common choices. The Advisory Board of Common Good includes a wide range of national leaders, including Howard Baker, Bill Bradley, Thomas Kean, George McGovern, Jeb Bush, Newt Gingrich, and Alan Simpson. Before becoming the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder was a trustee of the organization.

Common Good regularly organizes forums to study legal, educational, and governmental overhaul, hosting them jointly with think tanks such as the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Manhattan Institute. These forums attract thought leaders from around the country. In 2008, Common Good launched NewTalk.org, an online forum that has addressed a wide range of policy challenges. Leaders who have participated in NewTalk discussions include New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, and former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker.

Reforms championed by Common Good include:

• Creating special health courts. Common Good’s health court proposal, developed in a joint venture with the Harvard School of Public Health (and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation), is intended to bring reliability to medical justice, thereby avoiding the waste caused by “defensive medicine” and repairing the culture of distrust between providers and patients that impedes the open interaction needed for safe, effective care. Health courts would have judges dedicated full-time to resolving health care disputes. The judges would make written rulings to provide guidance on proper standards of care. These rulings would set precedents on which both doctors and patients could rely. The health court concept is supported by a broad spectrum of health care constituents, including the American Medical Association, AARP, and patient safety experts. Critics of the health courts concept contend that is ill-conceived, that it would be unfair to patients, that it would be unlikely to achieve its objectives, and that such of its goals as are reasonable can be achieved more fairly and with greater efficiency under the existing civil justice system. In March 2010, President Barack Obama sent a letter to Congress stating that he would support health court pilot projects.
• Restoring teachers’ authority to maintain order. Common Good’s education efforts are focused on decreasing bureaucracy in schools and restoring educators’ authority to maintain order in their schools and classrooms. Common Good believes these are essential preconditions for successful schools and that the national education debate has not adequately considered or addressed the impact that overregulation and disorder have had on school culture and academic performance. Common Good advocates giving public schools the same freedom, and accountability, as charter schools. Common Good has worked with leaders around the country, including in New York, Indiana, and Colorado, to restore teachers’ authority and build a foundation for success in troubled schools.
• Defining boundaries of lawsuits. Drawing on the thesis of The Collapse of the Common Good, Philip K. Howard’s second book, Common Good has worked to build consensus around the need for judges to act as gatekeepers, establishing the boundaries of reasonable claims as a matter of law and protecting broader societal interests. Today, Common Good argues, there is a sense that anyone can sue for almost anything, and most Americans do not believe that the courts will protect them if they act reasonably. A 2005 poll revealed that only 16 percent of Americans would “trust justice” if someone brought a baseless claim against them. Common Good has brought together top legal scholars and judges to discuss how to reframe the roles of judges, so that they act not as neutral referees—deferring to whatever a party claims—but as representatives of the interests of society. In a Newsweek cover story in 2003 highlighting Howard’s arguments and Common Good’s work, then-Senator John Edwards challenged Common Good’s premise, arguing that civil court juries are “democracy in action.” Howard countered by saying that justice is supposed to be rendered by the rule of law, not a “mini-election” each time there’s an accident or disagreement in the workplace.
• Radically simplifying law. Common Good believes that laws must be understandable to be effective, and that they should set public goals and general principles while leaving implementation to designated officials. Instead of laws telling people how to do their job, Common Good proposes clear lines of accountability.
• Sunsetting old laws. The accumulation of law, Howard has argued, precludes democratically-elected officials from making critical choices. Congress must periodically revisit old laws, making new findings on their effectiveness and relevance.