THE idea was great. For its most recent issue, the Harvard Political Review (HPR) asked several politicians, academics, journalists and business leaders to list their nominations for the five most important issues facing the U.S.

The results were predictable: members of Congress cited drugs. The corporate mogul cited the challenge of lowering production costs. The conservative columnist found "granting abberance the status of victimized minority," one of the most grave threats to national welfare.

If they wanted stale prescriptions from stodgy Talking Heads, they got it. For some real advice--unconstrained by what my constituents want to hear--they should have asked me.

In the spirit of the HPR survey, here are my nominations for the top five policy imperatives facing the U.S.

1. Promote democracy and freedom in all places.

Here, I agree with most of the respondents to the HPR survey: A coherent policy toward the disintegration of communism in Eastern Europe should be a top national priority.

But we shouldn't stop there. Promoting democracy means more than encouraging reform in the communist bloc. It means adopting a foreign policy based on respect for human rights and political freedom rather than on Cold War ideological prejudices. It means using American influence and moral example to eliminate human rights abuses in nations of all ideological persuasions.

It also means protecting civil rights and civil liberties at home.

2. Maximize the opportunities for individual initiative in American society, eliminating barriers to advancement and ensuring justice and fair play for everyone.

My top domestic priority might sound like a chapter out of the Republican platform. But there is a difference. I mean it and they don't.

When the Republicans talk about maximizing opportunities for individual initiative, they usually mean slashing the income taxes of the rich and eliminating affirmative action.

What I'm talking about is making American society a truly level playing field. To do that, we need to take away the free rides that some people have come to enjoy, be they members of the Teamsters union who demand excessive wages, corporations that avoid their fair share of the tax burden or professionals who work to exclude others from competing with them.

We need to eliminate "credentialism" and make people's rewards in life commensurate with their performance, not their "qualifications." This means that doctors, lawyers and "certified teachers" must be exposed to competition from capable people who have been shunted off by professional birth control.

Finally, we need to use the American system of justice to actually see that justice is done. We must provide equal access to the courts for rich and poor alike. We must reverse the Reagan-era tendency to wink at discrimination and abuses of power.

3. Make high-quality education freely available to every American.