Larsson läser
Janerik Larsson
Janerik Larsson
Jag har sedan 1960-talet följt USA med stort intresse och oftast med stark sympati. Men det har funnits och finns inslag i det amerikanska som skrämmer mig. Philip K Howard och hans organisation Common Good hör till det jag länge följt därför att han fokuserat på viktiga frågor. Hans kamp mot USAs juridikraseri och mot den makt som snäva intressegrupper skaffat sig är viktig. Men utgången av den striden är högst oviss trots att USA i så hög grad behöver mer välfungerande grundstrukturer.
Här några ord från en recension i Boston Globe av Howards senaste bok: ‘The Rule of Nobody’ By Jesse Singal
The United States, he writes, “is losing its soul. Instead of creating legal structures that support our values, Americans are abandoning our values in deference to the bureaucratic structures.”
Most importantly, informed individuals and groups have been progressively robbed of the legal power to make certain decisions, such as which bridges need to be built and whether nursing homes are up to code.
Instead, we litigate everything, which offers up a million opportunities for self-interested actors to get involved in decisions where they shouldn’t play a part. We live in an increasingly sclerotic system in which laws are piled atop laws, many of them “dead” in the sense that the reason they were originally passed no longer applies.(—)
We’re so used to lawsuits, to confrontation, to the idea that only rules can keep people in line. But the fact that Howard’s clear, levelheaded descriptions of how things are done elsewhere come across as so unrealistic proves his point: We really need to figure out a better way to do operate, lest the country grind to a halt.
Jesse Singal is a senior editor at NYMag.com.