Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:51:49.705Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Measuring the Quality of Life in the U.S.: Political Reflections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2009

Lawrence M. Mead
Affiliation:
New York University

Extract

The economist Amartya Sen has said that world development ought to focus on the capabilities that people achieve, and not simply on aggregate economic indicators. In that spirit, the United Nations since 1990 has published several Human Development (HD) reports that assess nations in terms of health and education conditions, as well as income or wealth. Many countries have assessed their own HD. In The Measure of America, Sarah Burd-Sharps, Kristen Lewis, and Eduardo Borges Martins apply this approach to the United States. They describe variation in health, education, and income conditions across American states, congressional districts, and social groups.

Type
Review Symposium: Measuring the Quality of Life in the U.S.: Political Reflections
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Kosar, Kevin R. 2005. Failing Grades: The Federal Politics of Education Standards. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reiner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George. 1996. Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know That Liberals Don't. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George. 2006. Whose Freedom? The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.Google Scholar
Mead, Lawrence M. 1986. Beyond Entitlement: The Social Obligations of Citizenship. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Mead, Lawrence M. 1995. “Public Policy: Vision, Potential, Limits.” Policy Currents 5 (February): 14.Google Scholar
Mead, Lawrence M. 2004. Government Matters: Welfare Reform in Wisconsin. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Travis, Jeremy. 2005. But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prison Reentry. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.Google Scholar
Whitman, David. 2008. Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism. Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Institute.Google Scholar
Young, Michael. 1961. The Rise of the Meritocracy 1870–2033: An Essay on Education and Equality. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.Google Scholar