Word: lowy
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Dates: during 1969-1969
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...LIBERALISM by Theodore J. Lowi. 322 pages. Norton...
With almost obsessive regularity, both radical right and radical left denounce the Liberal Establishment as Public Enemy No. 1. Too bad they are wasting so much time on a paper tiger, asserts Theodore Lowi, a liberal professor of political science at the University of Chicago. No such establishment exists, except on paper, and for that matter, not much is left of liberalism...
...Lowi's is only the latest assault on liberalism from the left side of the political spectrum. The favorite thesis, suggested by Christopher Lasch (The Agony of the American Left) and Noam Chomsky (American Power and the New Mandarins), is that liberals sold out their principles once they came to power. Lowi's theory is quite different. He argues that liberalism, which in theory has dominated Government policy for decades, has not really been put into practice...
...liberalism seemed about to be born. After long years of struggle with private interests, liberals in favor of big government* were now in control. In their hands, government swelled enormously and impinged on individual lives as never before. But things were not as they seemed, says Lowi. Rather than effectively applying federal power, the liberals were paradoxically parceling it out to a variety of special interests-some old, some new and better organized. It was not the Federal Government but blocs of farmers who in reality determined the policies of the Agriculture Department. Broadening the powers of the Interior Department...
...liberals in government abdicate their power to this extent? Partly out of natural attrition. They had to share power and influence because of the democratic process; some agreement had to be established with the private groups to be affected by federal policies. But beyond that, Lowi says, liberals have been the prisoners of a pluralistic theory that has become almost an article of faith in the U.S.: the belief that out of the clash of special interest groups emerges the common interest. This pluralism has been cast in various disguises. It has been called countervailing power, creative federalism, partnership...