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Introduction to the Inaugural Issue
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive prop-
erty, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea… He who receives an idea
from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his
taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread
from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man,
and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolent-
ly designed by nature…
—Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Isaac McPherson, August 13, 18131
An English country doctor by the name of Edward Jenner discovered in 1796 that inoculation
of humans with cowpox conferred immunity to smallpox. To describe the process Jenner
coined the term “vaccination,” derived from vacca, the Latin word for cow. When the British
Royal Society assented to publish Jenner’s findings in 1798, the work was greeted more with
derision than with acclaim. Few believed that fluid from a diseased animal could confer bene-
fits to human beings. The doubters were mistaken. Vaccination became a widespread practice.
In 1966 the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an effort to eradicate smallpox on a
global scale. Von 1980, almost two centuries after Jenner’s discovery, there was no longer a sin-
gle case of smallpox anywhere in the world.
By what process did the invention of the vaccine ultimately lead to the global eradication
of a dread disease? Jenner’s work obviously was only the beginning of a long story. The eradi-
cation effort required leadership and long-term vision, detailed planning, flexible organiza-
tion, ingenuity, and hard work on the part of many people. Initially employing a child’s toy
construction kit, scientists at the Lister Institute in London developed a method of freeze-dry-
ing the vaccine, aiding in storage and transport. Benjamin Rubin of Wyeth Laboratories col-
laborated with Gus Chakros of the Reading Textile Machine Company to design the bifurcat-
ed needle, aiding in administration of the vaccine.2 To address problems faced in the practice
of large-scale vaccination, fieldworkers involved in the WHO eradication effort developed
novel approaches, including smallpox recognition cards, watchguards, reward programs,
rumor registers, and containment books.3 Managers and supervisors encouraged experimen-
tation by field workers, and facilitated communication among them.
Discovering the process of vaccination required insight and ingenuity; ending smallpox
required a series of innovations.4 Other cases exist in which technology and novel forms of
organization have been employed to address public challenges on a global scale. Yet while
problems with major implications for social welfare may be the first to get attention, those
with relatively easy answers usually are the first to be solved. In part for this reason, the mag-
Philip Auerswald and Iqbal Quadir are the editors of Innovations.
© 2006 Tagore LLC
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Philip Auerswald and Iqbal Quadir
nitude of present challenges exceeds that of past successes. In an era in which the secrets of the
genetic code have been unraveled and fundamental processes of life are being newly under-
stood, people everywhere still face a future marred by the stark realities of global climate
ändern, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the spread of infectious disease.
And while the beneficial impacts
of technological change have been
dramatic,
they have not been
broadly shared. The majority of
people in the world continue to
live in persistently poor places,
where the local environment is
deteriorating and sickness is a
daily fact of life.
Existing
By focusing on the particulars of
üben, Innovations is intended to
complement existing journals,
providing a common space that cuts
across academic disciplines, bridges
theory and practice, and links
human action with global impact.
Und
incentive structures may or may
not be adequate to address these
Herausforderungen. If the past is any guide,
continued progress in addressing
public challenges will require con-
tinued innovations—the efforts of individuals, groups, and communities who creatively
employ new organizational forms, and in many cases new technology, to effect discontinuous
ändern.
institutions
This journal is about such innovations and the changes that they bring about. It is less
about what needs to be done, and more about what people are doing. Our purpose is to capi-
talize on the fundamental nature of innovations. Innovations can be copied and possibly
scaled up. Innovations open up new possibilities and create the ground for yet more innova-
tionen. By drawing attention to innovations in the public interest, we intend to encourage crit-
ical thinking about them, and to spur their proliferation.
WHY INNOVATIONS?
Academic journals addressing public challenges typically are structured to address the general
characteristics of problems rather than particulars of solutions. The problems in turn are
binned by academic field of inquiry: Zum Beispiel, Umfeld, Entwicklung, Gesundheit, Und
Energie. Jedoch, as illustrated by the smallpox eradication effort, solutions often draw from
multiple disciplines and modes of expertise. The conventional approach is successful in moti-
vating communities of scholars to advance the frontiers of understanding within disciplinary
boundaries—a key component of long-term advances in the social as well as the natural sci-
zen. The system is less successful in providing guidance to those seeking near-term options
for action leading to lasting solutions. Important insights with potentially broad application
are often lost simply for lack of a common space where they can be found. By focusing on the
particulars of practice, Innovations is intended to complement existing journals, Bereitstellung einer
common space that cuts across academic disciplines, bridges theory and practice, and links
human action with global impact.
4
Innovationen / Winter 2006
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Introduction to Inaugural Issue
This journal emphasizes the reciprocal interaction between technology and society. Wir sind
particularly interested in the actions of innovators who employ technology to change relation-
ships and thus transform governance.5 Here, “governance” refers to the institutions, processes,
and traditions that determine how power is exercised, how citizens are given a voice, and how
decisions are made on issues of public concern. “Technology” refers to things and processes
derived from science and put to practical use. We consider the inspiration and impacts of
innovations across multiple scales of analysis, both spatially (local, regional, and global) Und
temporally (short-term, medium-term, and long-term).
Why this focus? In the past century, technology has fundamentally changed the human
Erfahrung. It shapes, and is shaped by, our institutions. Heute, Gemeinschaft, politisch, and busi-
ness leaders are challenged to make critical decisions about technology. These decisions tran-
scend state boundaries and have impacts over multiple time scales. They affect both our man-
made and natural environments. Understanding their impacts and implications and broaden-
ing that understanding can influence the kind of human society we are able to build and the
kind of natural environment we are able to protect.
ORGANIZATION OF THE JOURNAL
Each issue of Innovations will consist of four sections.
The first section will be an invited essay on the topic of innovations, focused on the inter-
action of technology and governance in a global context. In diesem Aufsatz, an authoritative figure
will think through a policy issue—interpreting a long-term trend, identifying an emergent pat-
tern, and/or assessing the accuracy of conventional wisdom.
The second section will consist of analyses of innovations in practice. These case narratives
will be authored either by, or in collaboration with, the innovators themselves. Each will
include discussion of motivations, Herausforderungen, strategies, outcomes, and unintended conse-
quences. Each case narrative will be followed by commentary from an academic discussant.
The discussant will highlight the aspects of the innovation that are analytically most interest-
ing, have the most significant implications for policy, or best illustrate reciprocal relationships
between technology and governance.
The third section will consist of accessible, policy-relevant research articles subjected to a
process of peer commentary and/or review. We are particularly interested in publishing
research that links practice and policy—micro and macro scales of analysis. The development
of meaningful indicators of the impact of innovations will be an area of editorial emphasis.
The fourth section will consist of perspectives on policy. This section will publish analyses
of innovations by large-scale public actors—national governments and transnational organi-
zations. These analyses will consider the success and failure of policy informed by both empir-
ical evidence and the experience of policy innovators. The development of improved modes of
governance to facilitate and support innovations will be an area of editorial focus.
As the journal develops, we will use published content as the starting point for ongoing
conversations among readers and authors. We will publish reader feedback and will host
forums on topics addressed, engaging both practitioner and scholarly communities. Das
process is central to our undertaking. As editors of the journal, we do not view particular inno-
vations presented as definitive or exclusive of others. Eher, it is through the exchange of ideas
concerning the innovations that we hope better solutions will arise.
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Philip Auerswald and Iqbal Quadir
A DEDICATION6
The contributions to this inaugural issue establish the novelty, breadth, and analytic rigor of
the material that we will publish in Innovations. As the biographies that accompany each arti-
cle indicate, the authors are an exceptional group. We are grateful to all of them for their efforts
in bringing this inaugural issue of Innovations to fruition.
Among them is one who we would like to acknowledge in particular. Jean Lanjouw was the
first person we invited to author a contribution to Innovations. We sought her participation
because we admired the singular manner in which she was able to maintain the highest tech-
nical standards in her scholarship at the same time that she demonstrated a deep and unwa-
vering commitment to addressing issues of profound societal importance.
Lanjouw made important contributions in a variety of areas. Her series of studies on
patent litigation and on the value of patents were widely-read and influential. Lanjouw also
made significant contributions in economic development. She studied the role of land titles in
urban squatter communities in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and emphasized their interaction with
informal property rights. Her development of statistical tools that combined census and
detailed survey data so as to view poverty and inequality at the village or neighborhood level,
received much attention from academics and development practitioners. But her most influ-
ential work focused on empirically understanding the relationship between policies regarding
intellectual property rights and economic development.
Debates about intellectual property rights are almost always heated. This is particularly
true with regard to policies that relate to the impact of patents on access to critical medicines
in the developing world. Yet there has been relatively little empirical research into patent pol-
icy and its implications. Lanjouw threw herself into this arena and came up with original and
daring policy prescriptions.
The article of Lanjouw’s that appears in our inaugural issue was first published as a
Brookings working paper in 2001. Shortly before its release, the Wall Street Journal reported
that “Yale University economist Jenny Lanjouw’s plan—in which pharmaceutical companies
would surrender patent rights for any new AIDS drugs in poor countries but enforce them in
rich ones—is creating a stir at the World Bank and United Nations agencies. Executives at
Merck & Co., the drug giant, are reviewing it, and the Treasury Department held a seminar on
it last week… While the proposal… is far from being implemented, it is attracting attention
from policy makers eager to find a way to address the AIDS epidemic, particularly in sub-
Saharan Africa.”7
For four years, Lanjouw devoted substantial time to meeting with government officials and
business leaders in settings as varied as corporate board rooms, the National Institutes of
Health, and the World Economic Forum. Yet despite initial interest (and tireless engagement
by Lanjouw), there was little movement. In June 2005, four years after the publication of
Lanjouw’s Brookings paper, the Washington Post’s Sebastian Mallaby sought to redirect atten-
tion to Lanjouw’s proposal. “There’s an appetite to spend taxpayers’ money on buying existing
vaccines and on a ‘pull mechanism’ for new ones. But there’s a third challenge in this medical
battlefield: How to make drugs that have been invented for rich countries available in the poor
world… Jean Lanjouw advanced a solution to [Das] Problem [In 2001]. The idea would cost
Nichts: It merely involves drug companies giving up patent protection for heart pills and sim-
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Introduction to Inaugural Issue
ilar medicines in the poor world. Since poor countries buy almost none of these medicines
Trotzdem, giving up patent rights in those markets doesn’t hurt the drug firms. But it would
mean that cheap generic versions of these medicines could be distributed to poor consumers.”8
Lanjouw’s intention was to update the paper printed here, describing her experience in
seeking to understand and influence the public policy process on the vital topic of pharmaceu-
tical availability in developing countries. She did not have the opportunity to do so. She died
on November 1, 2005, at the age of 43, three months after learning she was ill.
We dedicate this inaugural issue of Innovations to her memory.
1. Text from the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia Library,
2. Jack W. Hopkins, The Eradication of Smallpox: Organizational Learning and Innovation in International Health,
(Felsblock, CO: Westview Press, 1989).
3. Lawrence B. Brilliant, The Management of Smallpox Eradication in India, (Ann Arbor, MI: Universität von Michigan
Drücken Sie, 1985).
4. In preparing this brief description of smallpox eradication we benefited from Chun Wei Choo, “The World
Health Organization Smallpox Eradication Programme,” unpublished manuscript.
5. We distinguish innovations in technology and governance by assessing them against five key measures: relevance
(extent of link exist between technology and governance), novelty, effectiveness, significance, and transferability.
We developed these measures with Winthrop Carty in the course of the Innovations in Technology and
Governance (ES G) Projekt, sponsored by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, with support from the Center for Science and Technology Policy at
George Mason University’s School of Public Policy and the Ford Foundation.
6. We thank Peter Lanjouw for his help in preparing this dedication.
7. Michael M. Phillips, “Yale Economist Envisions AIDS-Drug Plan With Two Markets for Companies’ Patents,”
Wall Street Journal, 2001 Juni 13.
8. Sebastian Mallaby, “Pills for The Poor,” The Washington Post, 2005 Juni 20.
Wir laden Leser zu Kommentaren ein. Please send an email to
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