The New "National Affairs" Journal Reboots Intellectual Conservative Debate

Written by David Gratzer on Wednesday September 9, 2009

Conservatism, once a governing philosophy, has lost its way this decade. Issues need to be re-thought; solutions must be debated. Yuval Levin's new journal, National Affairs, looks to focus conservatism on ideas once again.

Health policy was a major interest of mine when, nearly a decade ago, The Public Interest published a longish essay by an economist on rising health costs.  I skimmed the essay, disagreed with several conclusions, and put it aside – for about a week.

I then re-read the essay, twice in the same afternoon – and promptly re-thought my views on the topic. Entirely.

Let’s be clear: the topic wasn’t exactly new to me.  I was a doctor; I had been writing about health policy for years; and I had published an award-winning book on the Canadian healthcare system.

But the essay was that good and that thoughtful.

There aren’t many magazines and journals that can have that type of an effect on a reader.  But then, there haven’t been that many publications like The Public Interest.  With extraordinary contributors – Daniel Patrick Moynihan, James Q. Wilson, Martin Feldstein, Francis Fukuyama, and a slew of others – this graphically-challenged quarterly, with a modest readership, helped reshape conservatism and better the United States.

The quarterly was particularly important in the 1970s, when liberalism was an exhausted force, and conservatism needed to be fed strong ideas to mature into an alternative.

It was a sad day when The Public Interest ended its run in 2005.

Yuval Levin, one of the sharpest minds in American public policy, has re-started the project with National Affairs occupying, as David Brooks quips in yesterday’s New York Times, “the bloody crossroads where social science and public policy meet matters of morality, culture and virtue.”

The inaugural issue is fantastic. At roughly 180 pages, with commentary on everything from California to social mobility, it’s an impressive start.

And it’s an important project.  Conservatism, once a governing philosophy, has lost its way this decade.  Issues need to be re-thought; solutions must be debated. National Affairs will serve an important role in these tasks.

And, for the record, Milton Friedman’s essay on health care can be found on the National Affairs website, which includes the entire archives of The Public Interest.

Category: News