Social Policy and American Institutions

Past Projects – 1980s

• Immigration Policies in France and the United States: France and the United States are two Western democracies that share many traditions. They also face the same issues regarding how to respond to immigration and group identity in politics, education, and law. This study compared the two countries’ immigration policies, race relations, and political institutions; looked at how both countries educate and house immigrants; and analyzed the political and legal implications in each country of integration, marginalization, and discrimination.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1988-1992
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Donald L. Horowitz (Duke University) and Gérard Noiriel (Ecolé Normale Supérieure)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “Immigrants in Two Democracies: French and American Experiences,” eds. Donald L. Horowitz and Gérard Noiriel. New York: New York University Press, 1992. Available from publisher.
  SOURCES OF FUNDING: Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, École Normale Supérieure, la Mission Interministérielle Recherche Expérimentation
  COLLABORATING ORGANIZATION: École Normale Supérieure
  
  
• The U.S. Business Corporation in the 1980s: In the 1980s, with corporate mergers, takeovers, burgeoning global markets, and the formation of quasi-public enterprises like Amtrak, Comsat and Conrail, many American corporations were moving into uncharted territory. At the same time, demands on the U.S. corporation went beyond traditional economic goals to include complicated and controversial social and political functions, such as job creation in the inner city, maintaining environmental standards, and even influencing domestic affairs in foreign countries, like ending apartheid in South Africa. The Academy organized a multidisciplinary study group to examine the historical evolution of the U.S. corporation, changes in structure and control, the social organization of corporations, the role of the board of directors, and the corporation’s responsibility to its workforce and to society as a whole. Editors of the 1988 volume concluded that corporate governance policy choices have major implications for the U.S. economy and, thus, the U.S. standard of living.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1985-1988
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: John R. Meyer (Harvard University) and James Gustafson (University of Chicago)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “The U.S. Business Corporation: An Institution in Transition,” eds. John R. Meyer and James Gustafson. Cambridge: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1988. (out of print)
  SOURCES OF FUNDING: Seventeen law firms engaged in corporate work and the American Academy
  
  
• Business Opportunities and Social Needs: In 1981, the Academy convened a group of academics and business leaders to explore the potential for and limits of an expanded role for corporations in addressing unmet social needs. The resulting study illuminated the complicated and controversial issues that arise from public-private collaboration. The authors focus on the changing roles of the public and private sectors and on examples of public-private arrangements, such as the privatization of public services. This study is a recognized source of careful analysis and relevant case studies of the proper roles of government and the business corporation for fruitful collaboration — issues that remain relevant in advanced industrial societies and in the developing world.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1981-1984
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Harvey Brooks (Harvard University) and Lance Liebman (Harvard Law School)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “Public-Private Partnership: New Opportunities for Meeting Social Needs,” eds. Harvey Brooks, Lance Liebman, and Corinne S. Schelling. Cambridge: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1984. (out of print)
  SOURCE OF FUNDING: Control Data Corporation
  
  
• Changing Patterns of Marriage and Its Alternatives: Marriage is a form of relationship, with biological and social aspects, that both reflects and is influenced by other social institutions. This project was initiated in response to the widespread recognition, at the time, that the institution of marriage was experiencing profound but poorly understood changes. The Academy convened a group of anthropologists, sociologists, social psychologists, historians, economists, demographers, psychiatrists, and lawyers to document the major changes to marriage since World War II, analyze possible causes and consequences of those changes, and assess potential future developments in marriage.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1979-1985
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Kingsley Davis (Stanford University)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “Contemporary Marriage: Comparative Perspectives on a Changing Institution,” eds. Kingsley Davis in association with Amyra Grossbard-Schechtman. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1985. Available from publisher.
  SOURCES OF FUNDING: Russell Sage Foundation, American Academy
  COLLABORATING ORGANIZATION: Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
  
  
• Ethnic Pluralism and Public Policy: The Academy joined with the British Commission for Racial Equality and the Policy Studies Institute in London to compare and evaluate America’s and Britain’s policies toward eliminating discrimination and increasing opportunity for racial and cultural minorities. A timely collaboration — several British cities experienced turmoil in the summer of 1981 comparable to that experienced in the United States in the 1960s — the three organizations in 1982 held a seminar in England of scholars and government officials from both countries. The resulting study assesses each country and what it could learn from the other about the effectiveness of public policy responses to racial problems and about means for securing equality of status and opportunity.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1980-1983
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Nathan Glazer (Harvard University) and Ken Young (Policy Studies Institute)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “Ethnic Pluralism and Public Policy: Achieving Equality in the United States and Britain,” eds. Nathan Glazer and Ken Young. Lexington: Lexington Books, and London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1983. (out of print)
  SOURCES OF FUNDING: British Commission for Racial Equality, American Academy, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, German Marshall Fund of the United States
  COLLABORATING ORGANIZATIONS: British Commission for Racial Equality, Policy Studies Institute

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