> To: > Subject: Seymour Martin Lipset > > No Hedgehog > By Bill Schneider > 9 January 2007 > The Wall Street Journal > Many years ago, Seymour Martin Lipset, the eminent political > sociologist who died last week at age 84, startled me, his student, > with a casual remark. "I don't believe in education," he said. "I > believe in politics." This great scholar, who had taught at Columbia, > Berkeley, Harvard and later Stanford and George Mason Universities, > didn't believe in education? But I knew what he meant. > Lipset, of a generation of public intellectuals that includes Daniel > Bell, Nathan Glazer, Irving Kristol and the late Irving Howe, had a > deep and enduring faith in democracy. Not democracy as an ideology to > reshape the world: Democracy as a competition of interests and values, > a process. He did not believe that people had to be enlightened and > sophisticated -- "educated" -- in order to function democratically. > What they had to do was understand and pursue their interests. > The ancient Greek poet Archilochus wrote, "The fox knows many things, > but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Lipset was no hedgehog. He was > not a man of grand theories or ideologies that set out to organize the > world. He was far too grounded in reality for that. Lipset knew many > things. In fact, he knew just about everything -- American politics, > Christian religious doctrine, Jewish history, Latin American social > structure, Canadian culture, comparative labor movements, European > social theory, statistical methodology, Marxist philosophy and models > of economic development. For starters. Lipset vacuumed up vast > quantities of information, always looking for the answers to big > questions. Why do some democracies thrive and others fail? Why is > there no mass socialist movement in the United States? Why are > Americans the most religious people in the developed world? Who > supported Joe McCarthy? The answers were always straightforward, > commonsensical and keenly observed. > In his most famous book, "Political Man" (1960), Lipset dispelled many > naive notions about democracy. He advanced the idea of working-class > authoritarianism -- that poorer, less well-educated people are more > intolerant and less willing to accept the norms of democracy. But so > what, he said. "In spite of the workers' greater authoritarian > propensity, their organizations . . . still function as better > defenders and carriers of democratic values than parties based on the > middle class." He also showed that trade unions are often corrupt and > boss-ridden and function poorly as democratic organizations. But so > what, he said. "Many organizations may never fulfill the conditions > for a stable internal democracy and still contribute in important ways > to the democratic process in the total society." > In another influential book, "The First New Nation" (1963), Lipset > argued that the progressive values of equality and achievement have > always been ascendant in the U.S. They stem from the American > Revolution, which cast off the conservative yoke of a hereditary class > system, as well as from the Puritan religious tradition. The U.S. is > not the only Protestant-dominated country in the world, but it is the > only one in which the dominant Protestant tradition is that of > dissenting churches rather than an established church. That explains > America's unique religiosity as well as its individualism. > Lipset used the analogy of loaded dice. Once certain values are loaded > by defining historical experiences, they will come up again and again > to shape later events. Thus, he argued, the moderation of American > class politics "is related to the fact that egalitarianism and > democracy triumphed before the workers were a politically relevant > force. Unlike the workers in Europe, they did not have to fight their > way into the polity; the door was already open." > Lipset made his case by contrasting the American and Canadian > experiences, since Canada was a country defined by its rejection of > the American Revolution. He even wrote a book on the subject, > "Continental Divide" (1990). Lipset's ideas were so compelling, he > could make Canada interesting to Americans. > In 1970, Lipset and co-author Earl Raab published "The Politics of > Unreason," a history of right-wing extremism in America. In it, they > noted that the extremist impulse here draws from the same sources as > the democratic impulse, namely, an inexhaustible vein of populist > anti-elitism. "It is perhaps the ultimate paradox," they wrote, "that > extremist movements in this country have been powerfully spawned by > the same American characteristics that finally rejected them." A rich > and intriguing idea, that. > Lipset was full of rich and intriguing ideas. He also had many > nonacademic virtues. One was a clarity of expression. Another was a > generosity of spirit. He warmly encouraged generations of students, > colleagues and collaborators, even those of us who wandered away from > academe. What Lipset created was not a following, exactly. More like a > network, drawn together by a moderate temperament and shared > democratic values. > There is an African saying, "Every time an old person dies, a library > burns down." In Seymour Martin Lipset's case, that is not true. He > wrote, co-authored and edited some 50 books, and hundreds of articles. > The library endures. > --- > Mr. Schneider is senior political analyst for CNN and the co-author, > with Seymour Martin Lipset, of "The Confidence Gap" (Johns Hopkins > University Press, 1987). >
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