The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : "A new fortification mentality in America"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 30, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

"A new fortification mentality in America"

Margaret Leviis the current president of the prestigious American Political Science Association and Jere L. Bacharach Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her books includeOf Rule and Revenue(1988) andConsent, Dissent, and Patriotism(1997). During her visit to India, she discussed withHarish Kharethe state of academic freedom in the United States.

Prof. Margaret Levi ... "students getting ready for another battle." — Photo: Anu Pushkarna

How has the campus scene changed after 9/11? In particular, how has the new concern with security intruded itself on the environment of traditional academic freedom?

We have lost in one vital area. The U.S. Government, for policy reasons which I totally oppose, has put up barriers which make it difficult for foreign students to come in, or make it difficult for them to stay once they come in. The presence of foreign students was part of the vibrancy of the American campus. That has been affected by the new rules and regulations and new concerns. The foreign students are part of our (APSA) constituency and we have been working to relax some of the new rules about visas, home visits, etc. for foreign students. The visiting faculty faces the same problems; especially those from the Middle East countries, though the difficulties are not necessarily confined to them.

Before 9/11 there was this theology of globalisation which argued that the nation-state needed to be rolled back, borders were irrelevant, the European Union was the model, sovereignty an old and outdated notion. Suddenly the state is making demands on the citizens and insisting on those demands, in a far more intrusive, almost authoritarian manner. The argument is that since the non-state actors are threatening lives, the state and its institutions need to be reinvented. How do you evaluate the relationship between the citizen and the state in America?

I never bought into those (pro-globalisation) arguments, but we are facing a serious problem in the United States and in many other parts of the world. Australia comes to mind. There is this new mentality. The fortification mentality; which I find very frightening. It is not just about us and the rest of the world. It has to do with a great amount of insecurity in the American work force. Outsourcing is part of the story. Every economy changes, and people get hurt. More frightening or equally frightening is that our government is supporting, even encouraging, inequality internationally. Domestic politics of the present Republican Government encourages those insecurities; combine it with our long-term failure to devise ways of providing social insurance of the substantive kind that is available to citizens in the Scandinavian countries. Thus, two kinds of insecurities are at work, which are enabling, empowering the Government to take more and more powers.

I am hoping that this trend would be fought back; the labour movement is waking up again, not just about outsourcing; military services personnel are restive; the military personnel's families are angry that their boys are doing longer and longer stints in war-theatres. It is happening again. Students are active again. There is a widespread dissatisfaction.

Has American society lost its appetite for dissent and protest?

As I said, there is a fortification mentality, which is very frightening. The Government is getting all the powers over the citizen. But the claims made in the name of national security are dividing the American academic community. [The American Association of University Professors is having a three-day convention in the second week of June, 2005 to debate "Academic freedom and National security."]

The academic and intellectual community is today as deeply divided as it was during the civil rights movement. Today the split is between blue [Democratic] States and red [republican] States. There is a new political culture war. The radical Right is really targeting those it perceives as its opponents. People who say or write opinions that are not to its liking are subjected to enormous mobilisation.

We are speaking out. AAUP and American Union of Civil Liberties are active. There is this "Academic Bill of Rights" that has been introduced, which we feel is a reminder of a little bit of McCarthyism creeping back. [The Bill has been proposed by the Right Wing in an attempt to exorcise the American faculty of its liberal/democratic bias. The proposed legislation would make it incumbent upon the universities and colleges to appoint faculty "with a view toward fostering a plurality of methodologies and perspectives."] The AAUP has critiqued the "Academic Bill" as one that would "profoundly corrupt the academic integrity of universities." Instead of letting the universities determine the quality and range of pluralism deemed reasonable by relevant disciplinary standards, the advocates of the Bill make it clear that "they seek to enforce a kind of diversity that is instead determined by essentially political categories, like the number of Republicans or Democrats on a faculty or, the number of conservatives or liberals."

What has happened to the notion of campus protest?

As I travel around the universities, I hear things; I see things and feel that the students are getting ready for another battle. Sure, nothing like the grand protests of the 1960s. It is new kind of activity. Research combined with resistance. A new awareness can be detected, especially since the big battle in Seattle a few years ago. Today, for instance, the students protest against Starbucks' practices. Or, on a Friday night you will find 50-odd students discussing ways to combat corporate corruption. It is different kind of energy. They are not screaming, but working within the system.

Is this preoccupation in American Political Science with statistics good for the health of the discipline? Does it help American Political Science to become a more effective tool to civil society or does it help only those who happen to be inside the professoriate?

Definitely it does help the society; American political science has had things to say about political events. Political scientists may not have been as visibly influential as some economists have been, but their influence has been felt.

Statistics is only a tool but a very useful tool. It improves our logical capacity; it enables us to try to answer as to what causes what, allowing us to simplify complex relationships. Statistical analysis helps in comparing things over time, over places, leading to more balanced judgments and formulations.

In matters of health, literacy, GNP or GDP, poverty, corruption, statistical analysis gives us some idea as to why some countries are doing better or differently on one count than others; and, then we can try to understand what it is that country is doing, in terms of institutions, policies or laws, that other countries can try to replicate.

As a scholar, your current pre-occupation is with the notion of trustworthiness in government. Why do we need to deepen trust in government?

Trust is central to the idea of reliable government. It means when the government frames policies it involves different voices, different demands, and different concerns. Then, it follows fair and equitable due processes.

This is very necessary. A citizen may not always agree or like the government's policies, he must have the confidence that those who govern us try to be fair. Procedural justice is just as important. Trust becomes crucial in times of transition, as most of the countries are experiencing regime transitions.

A regime change by definition destroys or drastically transforms organisations, laws and institutions that previously facilitated cooperation and exchange. It becomes important to rebuild bases for cooperation among individuals. And, then, we need to make government and its legal institutions reliable. We know a certain kind of institutionalised reliability is essential for stable, economically productive, and potentially democratic government.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News Update

Stories in this Section

The political development of Sonia

The end of the Star Wars saga

Six on ten sounds right for this Government

"A new fortification mentality in America"

The BHEL disinvestment

Planes and carbon counting

Tribute to Sunil Dutt