At a time when everyone is sniffing around for big, game-changing initiatives (a bullet train! a new space rocket!), Pete Peterson, who heads Pepperdine University's Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership, offers a thoughtful new essay in City Journal on the dangers of megaprojects.
He also notes that there are ways, through forms of deliberative and participatory democracy, to let citizens have a greater say in these megaprojects. The full essay is here.