The Race to Innovate

The United States is losing ground quickly in the innovation sweepstakes to Japan, Denmark and other nations. There’s nothing mysterious about why: these and other nations have designed and funded federal policies to spur innovation, and we have not. The Fall, 2009 issue of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas features a symposium on “The Race to Innovate,” and examines what we should be doing in areas like finance, manufacturing, education, and creating new institutions that will help the private sector move forward. Among the articles addressing the topic are two articles by ITIF scholars: why innovation policy gets so little attention ("Making Washington Focus:First, Re-Educate the Economists") and benchmarking national innovation policies, ("America and the World: We’re Number 40!"). Kevin Huffman will also be presenting his article, "Education: Bringing Innovation to Scale" and Howard Wial will present his article "Strategy: A National Innovation Foundation". Please join ITIF and Democracy: A Journal of Ideas for a compelling forum to discuss the ideas here.