Family Values and Valuing Family

Part of the indelible mark that Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan left on American public policy was his prophetic voice on the topic of the American family. In his last book, The Future of the Family, published with Tim Smeeding and Lee Rainwater, Moynihan took a final look at the contemporary family.

As Senator Moynihan once noted, "The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, which determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself." Though questions remain as to whether it is culture, policy, or both that cause changes in the family to occur, experts from all sides of the debate can agree that marriage, family, and child well-being are shaped by public policy. Yet many of our solutions intended to support the family operate in a cultural time warp and assume outdated models of family, work, and society. How should policymakers respond? This panel, led by several of the book's contributors, will provide a forum to discuss a range of policy ideas in support of the 21st century American family.

Participants

• Timothy Smeeding
  Director, Center for Policy Research and Professor of Economics and Public Administration, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University


• Wade Horn
  Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services


• Isabel Sawhill
  Vice President and Director, Economic Studies Program, Brookings Institution


• Shelley Waters Boots
  Director, Early Education Initiative


• E.J. Dionne
  Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution and Columnist Washington Post