1993 Fisher Award Winners

Urban Policy Research Institute (now the

In his headline-grabbing book Drug Policy and the Decline of American Cities, Sam Staley argues persuasively that U.S. drug policy has spurred the expanded drug trade that has devastated many American cities.

Focusing on the relationship between public policy and urban economic development, Staley reveals how entwined the drug economy has become with the urban economy. This black market in illegal narcotics, an inevitable outcome of the current prohibitionist policy, fuels devastated inner-city economies and represents a primary source of employment and income. In the process, he argues, it is undermining essential institutions necessary for promoting long-term economic growth including respect for civil liberties, private property and nonviolent conflict resolution.

America’s cities can be revitalized, Staley contends, through a major restructuring of the urban economy, which would include the decriminalization of major drugs.

The call for drug legalization garnered headlines when the book was first published, but Staley’s work makes a larger and more important point: Public policies that promote profitable and violent black markets, such as the drug trade, undermine the institutional framework that is a necessary condition for sustained economic development, and significantly compromise the ability of inner-city neighborhoods to rejuvenate.

As one critic wrote, ‘Mr. Staley’s clear discussion of the relationship between the urban decline and current drug policy offers hope that we can bring an end to the downward spiral in our cities.’

National Center for Policy Analysis , Dallas, TX
Patient Power: Solving America’s Health Care Crisis by John C. Goodman and Gerald L. Musgrave
Cato Institute, Washington, DC, 1993

Shortly after the Clinton Administration came to power, it proposed a far-reaching plan to impose federal controls on the U.S. health care system. Many in the free-market think tank community voiced loud objections to this attempted take-over of one-seventh of the nation’s economy, but with the publication of Patient Power the National Center for Policy Analysis went a step farther. The groundbreaking study makes the case for a bold alternative solution to the country’s health care costs.

As the authors wrote in the preface to Patient Power, the premise of the book is simple: ‘If we want to solve the nation’s health care crisis, we must apply the same common-sense principles to medical care that we apply to other goods and services.’ The irony of America’s ‘health care crisis,’ they argue, is that health care costs are rising because, for individual patients, medical care is cheap, not expensive. With patients paying out-of-pocket only five cents for every dollar they spend in hospitals, while private and public health insurance picks up the rest of the bill, there is not incentive for patients to spend less. The Goodman and Musgrave solution is to restore power and responsibility to individuals. They propose that consumers be free to set up tax-free medical savings accounts to cover routine medical expenses. Since the money in those accounts would be the property of individuals, they would have an incentive to spend wisely on health care.

The book received a great deal of attention, both within the public policy community and in the general public. New York magazine described it as ‘by far the most clear-eyed analysis to be found anywhere’ of health care reform. Malcolm S. Forbes Jr. wrote, ‘[The authors] have come up with an approach to health care based on the principle of consumer-bought insurance? The results would be truly miraculous. Millions of people, instead of just insurers and employers, would police health costs.’

Ultimately, more than 300,000 copies of Patient Power were published in full and abridged versions. Based largely on the success of the book, the NCPA emerged as a vocal advocate for enlisting patients as controllers of health care costs, particularly through Medical Savings Accounts.

Institute of Economic Affairs, Health & Welfare Unit (now Civitas ), London, UK
Families Without Fatherhood by Norman Dennis and George Erdos
IEA Health and Welfare Unit, London, UK, 1993

When riots rocked London’s inner-city in the early 1990s, the conventional wisdom named poverty as the ‘root cause’ of the turmoil. With their thoughtful sociological study, Norman Dennis and George Erdos offered an alternative explanation: society’s increased lawlessness was a natural result of its failure to socialize young men within the structure of a two-parent family.

The family, the authors argue, is the foundation of a free society in which children learn voluntary restraint, respect for others and sense of personal responsibility, without which freedom is impossible. As family life has begun to break down in the last quarter of the twentieth century, it is not surprising, their study suggests, to see a corresponding breakdown in the basic structure of society. The breakdown of the family has led to the emergence of a new type of young male, one who is both weakly socialized and weakly socially controlled, who no longer feels the pressure previous generations of males felt to be responsible adults in a functioning community.

Despite being a scholarly text, Families Without Fathers attracted considerable public attention. Because the authors were identified with the Labor Party, it was difficult to dismiss their work as ‘typical right-wing’ fare and the book became the center of serious debate and discussion throughout Britain. It has been included on the reading lists of over 100 college courses and has gone though multiple printings. In 1997, London’s Daily Telegraph described it as ‘the groundbreaking and definitive study of the politics of family life.’ Many have credited the book with providing the catalyst for the Conservative Party’s ‘Back to Basics’ campaign in late 1993 to raise moral standards and restore the health of the family.

Pacific Research Institute , San Francisco, CA
The Heated Debate: Greenhouse Predictions Versus Climate Reality by Robert C. Balling, Jr.
Pacific Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, 1992

The Pacific Research Institute’s The Heated Debate was one of the first attempts to take a factual, scholarly approach to the question of global warming. Translating scientific data into understandable language, unclouded by emotional appeals or apocalyptic fervor, the book has provided political leaders, policy makers and citizens the information they need to begin to think rationally about global warming.

Climatologist Robert Balling dispels much of the ’science fiction’ of global warming and the greenhouse effect, presenting readers with a balanced exploration of the divisive arguments surrounding the subject. Stripping away the sensational speculation surrounding ‘the mother of all environmental scares,’ The Heated Debate shows that environmental disaster is not imminent. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are increasing, and this change in atmospheric chemistry should produce some climatic changes, but catastrophe is not the inevitable outcome. A study of the climate past suggests that such change will be far more moderate than many first predicted, and some of the changes may even be beneficial!

The PRI book provides a striking example of the valuable role independent public policy institutes can play, offering fresh new ideas that challenge the status quo and redefining policy debates. The Heated Debate had an immediate impact when it was published, and it has continued to illicit discussion years later. It was featured in a public affairs advertisement sponsored by the Mobil Corporation, distributed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and was discussed in congressional testimony. In addition, it was mentioned in numerous publications across the country. The book has gone through multiple printings and has also been published in paperback. Balling has become one of the most in-demand speakers on the environmental lecture circuit, and The Heated Debate is frequently cited in global warming discussions.