Opinion: Latest Reports from The Washington Posts ‘In Theory’

Why do we care about sports so much?
It’s March, which means it’s almost time for the NCAA Tournament — a 68-team college basketball competition that has become one of the most famous annual sporting events in the United States. Every year, “March Madness” saturates the media for its months-long cycle, but of course, this is nothing out of the ordinary for the […]
Three reasons political polarization is here to stay
Jane Mansbridge is the Charles F. Adams professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. As president of the American Political Science Association from 2012 to 2013, she created the Task Force on Negotiating Agreement in Politics to respond to the crisis of polarization in the federal legislature. A suggestion on polarization: Get used to it. It’s […]
America today is two different countries. They don’t get along.
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about polarization in politics. Need a primer? Catch up here. Alan I. Abramowitz is the Alben W. Barkley professor of political science at Emory University. He is author of “The Disappearing Center: […]
Our government is messy — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t working
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about polarization in politics. Need a primer? Catch up here. Thomas Petri (R) represented Wisconsin’s 6th congressional district in the U.S. House from 1979 to 2015. Listening to most commentators, you’d think […]
Congress could reduce polarization. It has chosen not to.
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about polarization in politics. Need a primer? Catch up here. Jim Marshall, a Democrat, represented Georgia in the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2011. He is a former president and chief […]
Republicans created dysfunction. Now they’re paying for it.
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about polarization in politics. Need a primer? Catch up here. Thomas E. Mann is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and resident scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Norman J. […]
The growth of executive power has turned politics into war
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about polarization in politics. Need a primer? Catch up here. Dana Nelson is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt chair of English and American studies at Vanderbilt University. She is author of “Bad for […]
Is it possible to fix the polarization of American politics?
At the end of last week’s Republican debate, moderator Bret Baier questioned each of the candidates about their commitment to the Republican Party. Would Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich support Donald Trump if he was chosen as the GOP’s presidential nominee? After the past few weeks of intense in-fighting — in which Trump […]
How well-meaning political reformers are helping to elect President Trump
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about polarization in politics. Need a primer? Catch up here. David Broockman is an assistant professor of political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Academic hand-wringing rarely changes political institutions. […]
Self-driving cars will change more than just traffic. Here’s why.
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about car-free cities. Need a primer? Catch up here. Aaron M. Renn is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. With public transit, walking and cycling on offer in many big cities, […]
Cities should take back their parking spaces
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about car-free cities. Need a primer? Catch up here. Carlo Ratti is professor of the practice of urban technologies at MIT, where he directs the Senseable City Lab. He runs the design […]
How parking requirements hurt the poor
Donald Shoup is a professor in the department of urban planning in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at University of California, Los Angeles. For most of the past century, all our cities have been built to suit the car. Other than historical anomalies like Venice, it remains unlikely that we will see any carless […]
Buses and trains: That’s what will solve congestion.
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about car-free cities. Need a primer? Catch up here. Jarrett Walker is a consultant in public transit planning and policy, based in Portland, Ore. He is the author of the book “Human […]
How jaywalking became a crime
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about car-free cities. Need a primer? Catch up here. Shivani Radhakrishnan is a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy at Columbia University. Her writing has appeared in n+1 and the Boston Review. Picturing the […]
Transit is dead. Let’s prepare for the next mobility revolution.
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about car-free cities. Need a primer? Catch up here. Randal O’Toole is a senior fellow with the Cato Institute and author of “Gridlock: Why We’re Stuck in Traffic and What to Do About […]
Are Americans leaving cars behind?
America’s love affair with driving seems to be cooling off, while our obsession with urban living is heating up. The percentage of Americans holding driver’s licenses has fallen sharply over the past several decades, especially among the young. In 1983, more than 91 percent of 20-to-24-year-olds held a license. By 2014, that number had dropped […]
The car century was a mistake. It’s time to move on.
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about car-free cities. Need a primer? Catch up here. J.H. Crawford is the author of “Carfree Cities” and “Carfree Design Manual,” and publisher of Carfree.com. We must first remember that all cities […]
Response: The Responsibility to Protect doctrine has failed
Last week, In Theory published a series on the Responsibility to Protect doctrine — catch up here. Below is a response to that series. Aidan Hehir is a reader in International Relations at the University of Westminster. The recent “In Theory” series on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) highlighted that arguments for R2P’s efficacy are primarily based […]
Eight questions to ask before human genetic engineering goes mainstream.
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about human genetic engineering. George Church is professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and stakeholder in various human genetics companies, including Veritas, Editas and Intellia. His laboratory was the first to […]
Why are we telling scientists to destroy human life?
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week we’re talking about human genetic engineering. Brendan P. Foht is associate editor at the New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society. Many worry that tinkering with human DNA could have unpredictable consequences for […]
CRISPR will change lives, but not only through genetic engineering
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week we’re talking about human genetic engineering. Jacob Corn is scientific director of the Innovative Genomics Institute and a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley. His research focuses on bringing about the […]
What’s the difference between genetic engineering and eugenics?
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week we’re talking about human genetic engineering. For a half-century, the ethics of human genetic engineering have been discussed in the abstract. Because the tools to edit DNA didn’t exist, the question was more a […]
How humanitarian intervention makes protecting the innocent more difficult
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week we’re talking about the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. Need a primer? Catch up here. James P. Rudolph is an attorney in California and Washington, D.C. He has worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development […]
Terrorism or genocide? We should be fighting both.
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week we’re talking about the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. Need a primer? Catch up here. Karen Attiah is deputy digital editor for The Washington Post’s Opinions section. The international norm of Responsibility to Protect — R2P […]
Rwanda should have been a wake-up call. Why do the crises continue?
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week we’re talking about the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. Need a primer? Catch up here. Sarah Cliffe and Hanny Megally serve as director and senior fellow, respectively, at the New York University Center on International Cooperation. […]
How the world failed the Central African Republic
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week we’re talking about the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. Need a primer? Catch up here. Evan Cinq-Mars is an advocacy officer at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and author of “Too Little, Too […]
No nation should fight global atrocities alone
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week we’re talking about the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. Need a primer? Catch up here. Ramesh Thakur is a professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University and author of “The Responsibility to […]
Syria is a failure of commitment, not principle
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week we’re talking about the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. Need a primer? Catch up here. Alex J. Bellamy is director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. The Responsibility to Protect is a disarmingly […]
How to rid the world of genocide
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week we’re talking about the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. Need a primer? Catch up here. Gareth Evans, a former Australian foreign minister and president of the International Crisis Group, co-chaired the International Commission on Intervention and […]