National Affairs

09/23/2025

Leading off our new Fall issue, Howard Husock & Bruce D. Meyer consider how government housing programs could be reformed to better promote upward mobility:

Government housing programs have grown far larger than programs involving cash welfare, yet unlike the latter, they impose no time limits or work requirements on beneficiaries. They thus ignore the lessons learned from cash-welfare reform in recent d...

09/22/2025

Our Fall 2025 issue is now online! Featuring:

-Howard Husock & Bruce D. Meyer on reforming subsidized housing to promote upward mobility
-William Inboden on restoring the academic social contract between universities and the public
-Arnold Kling on the AI era in computing
-Abby M. McCloskey on our broken fertility culture
-Lorraine Smith Pangle on Benjamin Franklin and keeping our republic
-And much more! Happy reading: https://nationalaffairs.com/

08/07/2025

The Senate filibuster has come under attack from both parties in recent years. Christian Fong on why and how it should be preserved:

The filibuster creates vital incentives for cross-partisan bargaining. By forcing narrow majorities to seek support from senators in the minority, it counteracts the polarizing tendencies of our contemporary political culture. But the filibuster is a...

08/05/2025

Ronald A. Cass on why this might be the ideal time for civil-service reform:

Career federal employees are largely shielded against many modes of discipline or termination that are routinely used to align workers' incentives with the interests of their bosses. The Trump administration's desire to change that is both legitimate...

08/04/2025

Michael Rosen joined our latest podcast to discuss ancient wisdom and modern tech: What can the legends of the Golem and Frankenstein's monster teach us about the AI challenge? https://nationalaffairs.com/blog/detail/media/the-golem-frankensteins-monster-and-ai-applying-ancient-wisdom-to-modern-tech

07/25/2025

Steven F. Hayward & Linda L. Denno on why the contemporary left is unwilling to contend with the dangers of envy and social justice:

Envy is a near-universal element of the human condition, but it is strangely under-examined in contemporary social science. This is not a coincidence. Envy is the silent partner of radical egalitarianism, and is ubiquitously leveraged in the promotio...

07/22/2025

From the late Ed Feulner and former vice president Mike Pence in our Summer issue: "Conservatism is far more than a resistance to disorder — it is a promise, a calling, a duty to preserve what is good and cultivate what is enduring."

An existential identity crisis now grips the American right. Long rooted in the principles of limited constitutional government, moral order, and tradition, it now too often defines itself simply by opposition to the excesses of the left. This has dr...

07/15/2025

The Democratic Party is in a terrible state. Marc Landy looks back to the 1990s for lessons about how Democrats might regain power and improve American governance:

The Democratic Party is in a terrible state. It has become a prisoner of its activists and seems to be drifting further away from public opinion. Democrats would benefit from a look at the last time their party underwent serious introspection after a...

07/11/2025

If universities are to regain public trust, they will need to re-emphasize teaching by requiring that professors spend significantly more time in the classroom, write Frederick M. Hess & Richard B. Keck:

American universities are in crisis, and one reason is that too many of them no longer focus on teaching. Education is simply not what colleges prioritize or reward, with troubling consequences for student learning, campus culture, and tuition costs....

07/09/2025

The question of birthright citizenship has made it all the way to the Supreme Court. John Yoo & Robert Delahunty write that, according to the best reading of the 14th Amendment, all individuals born on American soil are American citizens: https://nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/originalist-case-birthright-citizenship

07/04/2025

Happy Independence Day! Celebrate by reading Vincent Phillip Muñoz's essay on how the Declaration of Independence actually set in motion three interrelated revolutions: a new understanding of the foundations of political authority, a new conception of government's purpose, and a recognition of the legitimacy of religious authority.

Through the Declaration of Independence, the founders set in motion three interrelated revolutions: They put forth a new understanding of the foundations of political authority, crafted a new conception of government's purpose, and recognized the exi...

07/03/2025

A great listen for Independence Day weekend: Michael Lucchese joined our latest podcast to discuss Russell Kirk, Kirk's view of the American Revolution, and the founders' "revolution of memory."

The National Affairs Podcast, Episode 61: On the founders' "revolution of memory."...