Synopses & Reviews
The Smart Society offers a detailed blueprint for how the United States can recast its human capital policies to make all Americansnot just a privileged elitesmarter and more successful than ever before, at the same time stemming the size and cost of the nation's "safety net." The spectacular, centuries-long success of the United States is based on its having determined, early on, to be a
smart country, single-mindedly developing institutions and practices that enabled its native born citizens to maximize their economic and social potential, and welcoming opportunity-seeking foreigners to join them. Over the last four decades, however, the vaunted United States human capital machine has been breaking down, dimming the economic and social prospects of millions of Americans.
If The Smart Society blueprint is followed, these trends can be reversed and the nation and its people can quickly regain their preeminence in the hyper-competitive and globalized world of the 21st century. This is a most topical issue today because the country's current heated political disagreements are not just about the proper size of government, but about how the United States can reverse its apparent decline and restore its historic economic and social vigorin other words, regain its place as the worlds smartest” nation.
About the Author
Peter D. Salins is University Professor of Political Science at Stony Brook University and director of its graduate program in public policy. As a nationally recognized scholar whose work has focused on key public policy issues, his articles have appeared in a wide variety of newspapers, periodicals, and scholarly journals, including
Commentary, Reason, The New York Times Magazine, The Public Interest, The New Republic, and
City Journal.
Now Dr. Salins has turned his research and policy analytical energies to the critical issue of American human capital. He is extremely well-positioned to write on this topic, given his ten year experience as the Provost of the State University of New York System from early 1997 to late 2006. In that role he had to assure that SUNYs 400,000 students received (and completed) an academically rigorous college education, and that graduates of the systems 15 education schools were prepared to be successful teachers in New Yorks public schools.
Dr. Salins is also a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute, a fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council of New York, a trustee of Strayer University and a member of the Board of the Syracuse University School of Architecture. Salins is a graduate of Syracuse University where he earned Bachelor of Architecture, Master of Planning and Ph.D. degrees.