THE STANDARD READER
The Standard Reader Books in Brief Democracy by Decree: What Happens When Courts Run Government by Ross Sandler and David Schoenbrod (Yale University Press, 256 pp., $30). "Believers in democracy...
...Blurbed by a wide variety of people, Democracy by Decree comes highly recommended...
...We regret it too, Mr...
...Sandler and Schoenbrod present themselves as sympathetic to those seeking reforms through the courts, but cite examples of "rigid and unrealistic" decrees from "institutional reform litigation...
...Koch...
...Finding true love has never been easy, but it seems particularly difficult for young women today...
...Judges who legislate have no better track record than elected politicians—and have done dramatically worse with special education, environmental protection, medical care, and foster care...
...But the most striking blurb is from Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York City: "A fascinating book for someone like me who regretted agreeing to a court-approved consent decree limiting the city's authority in programs involving prisons, welfare, education, homeless shelters, etc...
...One reason, she discovers, is the revolution in girl-rearing she calls the "Girl Project...
...In the old system they had to make a commitment to get a nice girl into bed...
...While the purpose of romantic courtship was to pair off young people for marriage, "relationships" pair them off for anything from "living together, to serial monogamy, to casual partnerings...
...But now things are much easier for them...
...What's more, this new system is particularly suited to young men, especially the educated and affluent...
...This new path involves a lot of college degrees and career development, but the central idea is that these girls, once grown, will get all the benefits of marriage—good money, sex, and a nest egg—without actually marrying...
...The courts are no longer in the business of enforcing rights—they are creating them, and they aren't doing a very good job...
...Katherine Mangu-Ward Why There Are No Good Men Left: The Romantic Plight of the New Single Woman by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead (Broadway, 195 pp., $23.95...
...Costing millions, these court-supervised programs often end up harming the constituency they were intended to help...
...Evidence of their romantic plight is everywhere: in television shows like Friends and Sex and the City, in "Chick Lit" fiction like Bridget Jones's Diary, and in the flood of women's self-help books...
...Carefully and clearly, they demonstrate how federal courts have weakened the political system by taking control of schools, prisons, and mental hospitals for decades at a time, in the name of high-sounding goals for social reform...
...For Why There Are No Good Men Left, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead interviewed dozens of young, successful women to find out why getting a mate is so difficult...
...Changes in sexual mores and behavior, a persistently high rate of divorce, historic increases in unwed childbearing, the resort to new reproductive and matchmaking technologies, the rise of cohabitation, . . . and the decline of college-based courtship are all signs of weakening in this long established system," Dafoe Whitehead writes...
...We thought the same when we were public-interest attorneys, but we were wrong...
...So how do women feel about their situation...
...Believers in democracy by decree argue that political progress is not fast enough, or cannot be trusted...
...With these words, Sandler and Schoenbrod open their informative book about how courts and lawyers have come to control many of the most important functions of state and local governments...
...Most are still marriage-minded, but as one twenty-something put it, "Society sucks the hope out of all of us...
...Inspired by both the feminist vision of independence and the omnipresence of divorce, the Girl Project prepares girls for adult lives as women without any dependence on men or marriage...
...Unfortunately, the Girl Project also drove a stake through the heart of romantic courtship...
...Rachel DiCarlo...
Vol. 8 • March 2003 • No. 24
