Correspondence: Letters from Enhamre, Boulware, Ward, Morrison, Mayfield, Windover, and Stanakowski
Book Review: The Political Culture of the United States by Donald Devine Little-Brown, $7.95 There are several contentions which make up the central purpose of The Political Culture of the United...
...Rather I wish to raise certain fundamental questions, not regarding the accuracy of Devine's findings, but regarding Devine's view of the American tradition or condition...
...But much depends on a young and dedicated counter-elite pursuing principle as vigorously as most of our politicians pursue power, seeing their earthly mission as one in part committed to changing the course of events...
...The Alternative January 1973 While Locke may have been quoted by certain political leaders, people lived by certain inherited norms not necessarily consistent with either the new economics or politics...
...It is not the purpose of this review to question whether the favored attitudes can be properly described as Lockean or not...
...To admit that America's leadership is sick, as it is, is to say that America is floundering...
...This may well be the case even though the nation's non-elite are healthy in attitudes and actions, as Devine demonstrates...
...I am afraid that the tradition defined reflects a nineteenth century interpretive revision essentially along economic and "Millian" lines of the nature of the Western tradition in the politics of the American experience...
...Well, they support the tradition...
...is learned...
...I do not mean to single out Locke as the, or even a subservice influence, but to make the point that people, leaders and followers alike, may say one thing, but do something entirely different...
...There are signs of promise...
...The academy whose commitment is supposed to be to quality has become vulgar and political to the point that the SDSers have a point, even if their suggestions were an extension and magnification of the problem...
...is selective...
...To the contrary, it is a helpful device, albeit incomplete...
...It is within this elite that America's problems lie, although not necessarily exclusive to them...
...Moreover, the revision has caused considerable harm to the health of our political institutions, for we have been led to an over-emphasis on political freedom and an under-emphasis (perhaps no emphasis at all) on personal duty and apolitical things...
...Consider the conditions of federalism...
...The questions are 1) whether our overly-bureau-cratized society is as mobile as it once , was...
...The states, very often for utilitarian political motives, beg the national government to do this or that for them...
...The collapse of federated responsibility is not totally a matter of a federal power grab...
...To lay the ground for an empirical review of our cultural milieu we are informed that: "culture is a product...
...That tradition is defined as political attitudes which favor liberty over security, private over public property, personal achievement, the legislative over the executive, and a metaphysical foundation to the order of things...
...America's elite are our political and moral leaders...
...While not presently undertaking a review of the strengths of our political culture - and I am convinced there are some, as Devine most assuredly is convinced there are many - I do question the effectiveness and soundness of an analysis of the population's attitudes on certain selected beliefs...
...The central thesis of The Political Cul ture of the United States is that the American people support the "Lock-ean liberal" tradition, as Devine defines it...
...In other words, we must analyze the event, more than the rhetoric...
...So would Birch Bayh...
...Politics is, however, derivative, and one who would analyze its condition must also go to the primary sources, moral conviction and cultural habit...
...But in the world of politics, power, and policy I don't think it matters all that much...
...Health among the elite and the body politic is essential...
...The final chapter on federalism will be written (it is half so already, thanks to grants-in-aid) when revenue sharing turns the states into the mere administrative agencies they will become when money flows from Washington...
...The early America was founded on basic religious and moral notions, even though Adam Smith was the fad of the day...
...They probably do...
...Yet these results turned up after repeated articulation by the "two Georges" and the chic media...
...The empirical analysis of actions by modern Americans might produce an entirely different picture regarding the health of this nation's politics...
...Before making a final point regarding the book's stated thesis, I should like to digress to Devine's contention, strongly stated outside the pages of this book, that the political problems now faced by the United States are essentially problems with our elite...
...It is more important to study whether the opinion is correct, not simply whether it exists...
...The mission of educating the elite would seem to be infinitely more difficult...
...It is secondary and supportive of sound analysis of institutions, actions, and conditions...
...2) whether the new elite will come about because it has rejected current trends or because it has adopted and perfected them...
...It does no good to contend that the body is healthy if the brain has become addled...
...we were bequeathed sound republican in-titutions...
...Book Review: The Political Culture of the United States by Donald Devine Little-Brown, $7.95 There are several contentions which make up the central purpose of The Political Culture of the United States by Donald Devine, a political science professor at the University of Maryland...
...In simple terms, the population must accept certain political notions which conform with political reality so that the regime does not topple under the impact of internalized stress...
...Restated, there are deep problems amongst America's elite...
...He has also convinced me that I should question the integrity of those institutions till favored...
...Our political leaders are either so pragmatic as to be worthless or they are committed to aiding the forces of disintegration...
...In analyzing polls, these myths often appear undiffer-entiated from the society's basic and real symbols, moral and political...
...When modern political and economic institutions emerged around the sixteenth century, they came upon the firm moral foundation of medieval experience...
...Federalism died, not because it wasn't a good idea or one which did not work well...
...Business has come to be dominated by manager-bureaucrats whose lack of creativity is considered a virtue and whose methods of control are frustrating and boring...
...There are also other problems which go to the heart of the method...
...is based on symbols...
...and is an abstraction from behavior and the products of behavior...
...As we indict our elite, we must also indict our future in-as-much as today's elite bequeath that future...
...Complexly interwoven are mutually dependent theses about the history and vitality of America's political culture...
...There is, of course, the chance that through flexibility and social mobility, today's elite will be replaced...
...There is considerable evidence to justify this questioning...
...It died because our intellectual and political elite determined it expendable for political purposes...
...Failing that, the United States would be undifferentiated from Latin America and its momentary governments...
...Those who are in positions of power and authority, public or private, whether by achievement or inheritance, are out of step with the American people...
...In the face of an emergency the governors from Virginia to New York organized a meeting after the June floods to figure out what they could do to get federal assistance quicker than would normally be expected...
...But substantively there is no federalism, and herein lies the real problem with empirical, opinion-oriented analysis...
...It is self-evident that a fundamental and institutional consensus, at least during the formative term of a democratic tradition, be present...
...And it is more important that we know what is, not what some think conditions are...
...Under today's federalism there can be no lingerers, which is to say there is no federalism...
...Those reviewing the "political culture of the United States" sociologically can demonstrate that the American body politic enthusiastically supports federalism...
...For instance, polls cited by Devine regarding popular attitudes toward the "openness" of government are flatly contradicted by Louis Harris' poll published in June 19, 1972...
...Except that is only half the story...
...Is it not defin-itionally impossible for the non-elite to be missionaries for the elite...
...The question under empirical observation is whether the population continues to believe, in consensual proportions, in those sound republican institutions which Devine instructs are the political products of the "Lockean liberal tradition...
...Further, certain of these myths as publicly expressed have a tendency to change from day to day...
...However, it can also be demonstrated that there is no longer any such thing...
...And yet the American public supports federalism...
...Certainly no one could reasonably contend otherwise...
...The thesis is that the acceptance of certain political values is essential, without resort to substantial coercion, for "regime maintenance...
...This is what I see to be the central problem with the thesis as Devine has apparently developed it...
...At any certain time in history, especially in a day when empty notions are fed to the young through public schooling and electronic media, all too often there are highly generalized myths which only the most outrageous among us would not support, like apple pie, for instance...
...This is not to say that there is not value in empirical public opinion analysis...
...Dan Joy...
...America's division of powers between local (state) and national authorities is today more fiction than fact...
...But we are blessed...
...includes ideas, patterns, and values...
...According to Harris, the American population is alienated from both itself and its government...
...Our religious institutions are in decay, to the point that a recent youth crusade for Christ looked more like a fascist rally than a gathering of young people seeking theological understanding and moral guidance...
...In politics and finance, state welfare has gotten out of control, and governors are unwilling to turn off the spigot or raise taxes, so they actively seek to have the Big Fed come to the rescue...
...Finally, the point must be made that much of what America supports (e.g., federalism, legislative superiority, local option, constitutional government) no longer exists...
...It is dangerous to contend that a general political hypothesis can be either accepted or rejected on the basis of opinion data, which is at best less than reliable...
...the matter which should be considered is whether the tradition as defined tells the whole story...
...It is more important to study the health of the institution, its values and deficiencies...
...To be sure, there are some exceptions...
...There should be little argument with the beliefs Devine selects for review...
...It is a word, not the word...
...Devine has convinced me that Americans support these basic symbols of American politics...
...is historical...
...No doubt there would be reason for greater hope if just the reverse were true...
Vol. 6 • January 1973 • No. 4
