Philip K. Howard is an American lawyer and writer. He has written on the effects of modern law and bureaucracy on human behavior and the workings of society. He started Common Good, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which advocates simplifying government.
Work
Howard is the author of The Death of Common Sense, The Collapse of the Common Good, Life Without Lawyers, The Rule of Nobody, and Try Common Sense. The Death of Common Sense, which criticized over-regulation and excessive litigation, became a bestseller. Howard also founded and heads Common Good, a nonprofit that advocates for reductions in regulation and litigation. The organization's Board of Directors has included Bill Bradley, Tom Kean, George McGovern, and Alan Simpson. Howard has proposed reform of the handling of medical malpractice suits. In January 2017, Howard argued that the current civil service system is unconstitutional and should be replaced by executive order. Howard advised the presidential transition team of US President Donald Trump. In April 2017, he joined Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum. His 2015 report "Two Years, Not Ten Years," detailing the economic and environmental costs of delaying infrastructure approvals, has influenced the Trump Administration's infrastructure proposals, including their call for approvals to be made within two years. Critics such as the Natural Resources Defense Council disagree with report's findings, arguing that money, not permits, is the reason infrastructure projects are delayed, and that Howard's report relied on outdated statistics. The Trump administration's infrastructure proposal, released in February 2018, contained many of the recommendations from the report. In a 2019 article for a Capitol Hill newspaper, Howard characterized his political perspective as radical centrist. Howard is a former chairman of the Municipal Art Society of New York. He also chaired the committee that organized the Tribute in Light memorial for victims of the September 11 attacks.
Reception
Howard's work has been praised by New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist George Will, the latter of whom called Life Without Lawyers "2009's most needed book on public affairs". In contrast, Consumer Watchdog has accused Howard of having "a deep disregard for public use of the justice system" and favoring corporate over consumer interests. In a Newsweek review of Life Without Lawyers, Dahlia Lithwick criticized Howard for ignoring the value of other areas of law when pushing for tort and malpractice reform, writing that "the one thing scarier than a bus full of lawyers is a bus without them." Between 2010 and 2014, Howard was a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart three times, where he talked about starting a movement to streamline government and restore individual responsibility at every level of society. The Rule of Nobody was among the finalists for the Hayek Book Prize of the Manhattan Institute in both 2015 and 2016. Writing in The Washington Post, Robert Litan described Try Common Sense as a call "for pushing a giant reset button" and noted that Howard "makes a convincing case that in many ways government doesn't work." Writing in The New York Times, Mark Green described the book as a "jeremiad against 'regulation'."
Publications
Howard also wrote the introduction to Al Gore's book Common Sense Government. *
