Populism and Reform
Paper, Lewis J.
Populism and Reform THE GENTEEL POPULISTS, by Simon Lazarus. Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 303 pp. $8.95. reviewed by Lewis /. Paper "One revolution is just like one cocktail," Will Rogers once...
...Mr...
...These successes may prove invaluable in drafting future legislation to limit, with greater effect, the control exercised by corporate interests...
...According to Lazarus, this independence "is the first resource the Federal courts can use to aid public and majority interests systematically neglected by the elective branches...
...A graduate of Yale Law School, he served as an assistant to former FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson and then to former Mayor John Lindsay's chief consumer adviser, Bess Myerson—two capable leaders who pursued the vision of reform in the 1960s and early 1970s...
...Paper is a former staff attorney with the Citizens Communications Center, a Washington, D.C., public interest law firm...
...But Lazarus argues forcefully—and with some degree of success—that the legislation nurtured by Nader and his Populist colleagues can do little more than add some inflated rhetoric to the statute books...
...Almost every generation since the turn of the century has included groups that have chased visions of the ideal democracy...
...they have generally possessed a third element of political influence—the power of persuasion...
...and each generation's Populists have maintained a strong commitment to the democratic ideal where the .people rather than the corporations guide governmental policy...
...Another factor underlying the Populists' failures is an inability to grasp the structural obstacles of our democratic system...
...Aside from the deficiencies of the courts as a lever of reform, I believe Lazarus shortchanges the political process...
...The democratic god worshipped by the Populists has not often rewarded their determined efforts (a lesson learned most recently by Presidential candidate George McGovern...
...reviewed by Lewis /. Paper "One revolution is just like one cocktail," Will Rogers once commented...
...Lazarus points out that each modern generation's reformers—the Populists— have usually sprung from comfortable backgrounds (no one could claim, for instance, that either Woodrow Wilson's or Franklin Roosevelt's reformist zeal derived from a childhood in the ghetto...
...True, Populists have achieved few lasting successes through Presidential and Congressional politics in the last few decades, but the rate of success has been increasing...
...Populism and Reform THE GENTEEL POPULISTS, by Simon Lazarus...
...most powerful elements in society" (a fact which has come back to haunt oil company executives required to testify at Congressional hearings about today's energy crisis...
...This fundamental question is the focus of Simon Lazarus's The Genteel Populists, a well written book of uncommon scholarship...
...In many instances, their efforts have borne fruit...
...He is now legislative counsel to Senator Gaylord Nelson...
...This power has enabled the new Populists to achieve some victories, mostly through the legal process (where the pen often continues to be mightier than the sword...
...The courts possess a political independence lacking in the other branches of government...
...it just gets you organized for the next...
...Moreover, the vast bulk of this nation's legal resources are devoted to serving the vested interests, and there is no immediate prospect of a sudden shift of legal talent to defend consumer interests—public advocacy may soothe a lawyer's conscience, but it does not fill his pocketbook...
...But there are difficulties in relying on the courts as the main avenue of political reform...
...Thus, in Lazarus's view, enactment of the bill to create a consumer protection agency—a proposal which Nader has described as "the most important consumer legislation ever considered" on Capitol Hill—will probably not provide any more protection for consumers than other regulatory agencies...
...Lazarus is well qualified to explore this basic issue...
...Most regulatory reforms instituted by Wilson and Roosevelt, for example, were really engineered by the corporate powers that needed governmental agencies to ward off the "evils" of competition and public complaints...
...more often than not, major judicial decisions turn on questions of procedure which, in effect, protect the status quo...
...This proposed reliance on the courts for political reform may startle Ralph Nader, whose many talents and resources have been devoted principally to milking reform legislation from a reluctant Congress...
...A political process accessible to all groups and interests will probably "tilt" in favor of the stronger ones: "Precisely because our institutions are formally open to participation by all elements in society, they are vulnerable to domination by the...
...The Populists, however, have not been entirely devoid of political resources...
...In the end, the early Populists, no less than the new Populists of today, have frequently lacked two elements essential to political influence in a modern industrial democracy: organization and wealth...
...From this analysis, Lazarus concludes that the courts—and not the political processes—offer the new Populists (who are just as genteel as their predecessors) the best hope for reform...
...Lazarus offers excellent accounts of some major successes —the 1967 anti-trust law suit which forced ITT to drop its plan to absorb the ABC television network, the legal fight to achieve a fair election for the presidency of the United Mine Workers in 1971-1972, and others...
...Thus did one astute observer of Twentieth Century America capture the dilemma which seems to confront those intoxicated with the idea of political reform...
...But each generation of reformers leaves untouched the basic problem of politics in modern America: how to insure a government responsive to the needs of the whole population instead of a few powerful special interests...
...The few political reforms achieved over the years have done little to weaken the grip which the vested interests have on the neck of the government...
...Judges, as Lazarus himself recognizes, are usually hesitant to decide substantive political issues...
...In any event, the political process—with opportunities for broad participation by all segments of society—is still perhaps the best assur (Continued on Page 62) 62 (Continued from Page 59) ance that one "revolution" to exorcise the corporate devil does not necessitate a later "revolution" to overcome a tyranny by lawyers...
...What theories and what techniques offer the best hope of reaching or expanding those limits...
...It should therefore be no surprise that the Interstate Commerce Commission, the FCC, and other Federal regulatory agencies have largely proved to be guardians of the very industries they were supposed to regulate in the "public interest...
...The reasons for these failures, according to Lazarus, are not obscure...
...In the preface, Lazarus poses the issue clearly: "What are the real limits of democratic control in an industrial society...
Vol. 38 • April 1974 • No. 4
