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The Samaritan's Dilemma

Should Government Help Your Neighbor?

Deborah Stone
May 2008     ISBN: 1568583540

For at least a generation, experts have warned us not reach out to others. Too much help makes people passive and dependent, we are told, and self interest is the only motive that spurs people to work and contribute to society. Liberals and conservatives alike have endorsed this new moral code for government. The Samaritan's Dilemma challenges this conventional wisdom. We are born needing help, we die needing help, and we live out our days getting and giving help. We live by everyday altruism. So when leaders define the ideal citizen as someone who pursues his self interest and withholds help from others, good people are repelled by politics.


About the Authors

Deborah Stone is the author of Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision-Making, which in 2002 won the Aaron Wildavsky Award from the American Political Science Association for its enduring contribution to policy studies. She is a founding editor of The American Prospect.
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