“Public order is a fragile thing, and if you don't fix the first broken window, soon all the windows will be broken.” IfsFirstsOrderBrokenWindowFragileFragile ThingsBroken Windows Author:James Q. Wilson
“The view that we know less than we thought we knew about how to change the human condition came, in time, to be called neoconservatism. Many ... , myself included, disliked the term because we did not think we were conservative, neo or paleo. (I voted for John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey and worked in the latter's presidential campaign.) It would have been better if we had been called policy skeptics; that is, people who thought it was hard, though not impossible, to make useful and important changes in public policy.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsHumansHas BeensImportantHardTermViewsImpossibleConditionsPolicyConservativeCampaignsPresidentialLatterHuman ConditionJohnsonSkepticPublic PolicyPresidential CampaignJohn Kennedy Author:James Q. Wilson
“Many, if not most, of the difficulties we experience in dealing with government agencies arise from the agencies being part of a fragmented and open political system…The central feature of the American constitutional system—the separation of powers—exacerbates many of these problems. The governments of the US were not designed to be efficient or powerful, but to be tolerable and malleable. Those who designed these arrangements always assumed that the federal government would exercise few and limited powers.” IfsProblemGovernmentPoliticalPowerfulExerciseDifficultySeparationAriseFeaturesAgencyEfficientArrangementsFederal GovernmentPolitical SystemsTolerableFragmentedSeparation Of PowersGovernment Agencies Author:James Q. Wilson
“Broken Window Theory: Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or even break into cars.” PeopleIfsMayLightBreakFireCarBuildingTheoryBrokenWindowLeavingTendenciesRestaurantsBagsTrashSidewalkVandalsFire InsideSquattersBroken Windows Author:James Q. Wilson
“If a radical devolution of powers was possible, it would have been done before. The assumption of states' rights is gone. There's no support for it in the Supreme Court and there's no support for it in public opinion.” IfsHas BeensStatesDoneOpinionSupportGoneRightsCourtSupremeRadicalAssumptionSupreme CourtPublic OpinionStates RightsDevolution Author:James Q. Wilson
“Some people suggest that the problem is the separation of powers. If you had a parliamentary system, the struggle for power would not result in such complex peace treaties that empower so many different people to pursue so many contradictory aims” PeopleIfsDifferentProblemPeaceResultsStruggleAimComplexesSeparationPursueEmpoweringDifferent PeoplesContradictoryTreatiesParliamentarySeparation Of PowersPeace TreatiesParliamentary System Author:James Q. Wilson
