Fixing Government: Does America Need a New Operating System? February 5, 2011

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2011/01/18/Philip_K_Howard_Fixing_Broken_Government

Common Good founder Philip K. Howard argues for a complete overhaul of United States bureaucracy. "America needs a new operating system," he says. Is it time for the U.S. to reboot?

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Philip K. Howard is a conservative who inspires standing ovations from liberal audiences (short example here). He says that governance in America -- from the capitol to the classroom -- has achieved near-total dysfunctionality by accumulating so many layers of piecemeal legalisms that the requirements of navigating them has replaced any hope of getting actual justice or effectiveness. Most attempts to fix the problems have made them worse. Howard thinks they can be fixed in a way that restores core functionality.

Howard is the author of Life Without Lawyers and Death of Common Sense and is the founder and chair of Common Good, a reform advocacy nonprofit. - The Long Now Foundation

Philip K. Howard is a lawyer, author and civic leader. He is the author of, Life Without Lawyers, as well as the best-seller The Death of Common Sense and The Collapse of the Common Good, and he is a periodic contributor to the op-ed pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

He advises leaders of both parties on legal and regulatory reform issues, and wrote the introduction to Vice President Al Gore's book Common Sense Government. A practicing lawyer, Howard is a partner in the law firm Covington & Burling LLP. In 2002, Howard founded Common Good (www.commongood.org), organized to restore common sense to American public life. The Advisory Board of Common Good is composed of leaders from a broad cross-section of American political thought including, among others, former Senators Howard Baker, Bill Bradley, George McGovern, and Alan Simpson.

Howard is a civic leader in New York and is Chair-Emeritus of the Municipal Art Society, a leading civic group that spearheaded initiatives to preserve Grand Central Terminal.