He is the author of books and articles on public policy, culture, and economics.[2] His books include The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 (2018), Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America (2004);[3]Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working (2000);[4] and Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (1993; revised second edition in 2013).[5] In 2015, he published a short ebook, Political Realism, arguing that overzealous efforts to clean up politics have hampered the ability of political parties and professionals to order politics and build governing coalitions.[6] In 2021, Rauch released The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth[7] describing the erosion of epistemic commons, the cost to U.S. democracy, and offering solutions.
Writings and beliefs
A critic of U.S. government
public policy in general, including its relation to LGBTQ+ people, Rauch has pursued gay-related topics as an
openly gay author (he did not realize he was gay until after he finished college)[8] since 1991 when he spoke out against
hate crimelaws in The New Republic. He is an avid proponent of
same-sex marriage, which he believes improves the quality of life of both LGBTQ+ people and married heterosexuals.[9] He co-authored an op-ed article in The New York Times that proposed the compromise of nationally recognized civil unions for gay couples, which he did with the goal of "reconciliation" with religious opponents of same-sex marriage.[10]
Rauch is also well known for an article he wrote in The Atlantic in March 2003, entitled "Caring for Your Introvert: The habits and needs of a little-understood group".[12] In this article, Rauch described his own experiences as an
introvert, and how being an introvert has affected his own life. For many introverts, his piece became a long sought after explanation of their own personality traits. For a period of years, Rauch's original article drew more traffic to The Atlantic Monthly site than any other article.[13]
In terms of political philosophy, Rauch has referred to himself as "an admirer of
James Madison and
Edmund Burke" and a "radical incrementalist," meaning one who favors "revolutionary change on a geological time scale."[14] He has also summarized Burke's views, and his views, in that "utopianism and perfectionism, however well intended, should never displace reasonable caution in making social policy... It's much easier to damage society... than to repair it."[15]
He has in the past described himself as "an unrepentantly
atheisticJewishhomosexual".[16] He defines his view as
apatheism, in which he respects other people's choices of religiosity or absence of religion without making a big deal of them. He contrasts this with American atheists who seek to evangelize and convert people away from religion, actions that he is critical of.[17]
In political science and economics, Rauch is known for coining and promoting the term "demosclerosis" as "government's progressive loss of the ability to adapt"—a process in which specific benefits, going to special interests, bill the common taxpayer, which uses the medical term
sclerosis to apply to government drift.[18] He is a critic of
communism, calling it "the deadliest fantasy in human history".[19]
Rauch, Jonathan; Will, George F. (2014). Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought. University of Chicago Press.
ISBN978-0226145938.
Rauch, Jonathan (2015). Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy. Brookings Institution Press.
Rauch, Jonathan (2019). The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After Midlife. Green Tree.
ISBN978-1472960979.
Rauch, Jonathan & Benjamin Wittes (Mar 2018).
"Boycott the GOP". Dispatches. Politics. The Atlantic. 321 (2): 13–16. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
Rauch, Jonathan (2021). The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. Brookings Institution Press.
ISBN978-0815738862.
References
^Contemporary Authors Online, s.v. "Jonathan Rauch" (accessed April 3, 2008).
^Rauch, Jonathan (2004-04-07). Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America: Jonathan Rauch: 9780805076332: Amazon.com: Books. Macmillan.
ISBN0805076336.
^Rauch, Jonathan; Will, George F. (2014-01-23). Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought, Expanded Edition (Enlarged ed.). Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.
ISBN9780226145938.
^Rauch, Jonathan (2015). Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy. Brookings Institution.
^Let it be, The Atlantic, "I have Christian friends who organize their lives around an intense and personal relationship with God, but who betray no sign of caring that I am an unrepentantly atheistic Jewish homosexual."