The Neoconservative Vision: From the Cold War to the Culture Wars

Contrary to widespread belief, neoconservatives generally support the welfare state as providing an essential safety net, though neocons such as Irving Kristol and Michael Novak want to restructure welfare programs in order to limit bureaucracy, maximize personal autonomy and discourage a cycle of dependency. This viewpoint emerges from Gerson's survey of neoconservative thought, based on his interviews with Kristol, Novak, Norman Podhoretz, James Q. Wilson, William Buckley Jr., Midge Decter, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Richard John Neuhaus, Joshua Muravchik and other leading neo- and old-line conservatives. Despite a wide diversity of opinions, there is much common ground; neoconservatives oppose affirmative action; they regard capitalism as essential to economic and moral prosperity and view communist systems as evil; pro-choice neoconservatives think abortion is wrong and should be stringently regulated and discouraged, while many Catholic neocons go further, opposing legalized abortion, which they regard as murder. Even readers who disagree with neoconservative philosophy will find much to ponder in Gerson's thoughtful intellectual history. (Jan.)