Download The
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Francis Boyer Lectures on Public Policy THE THINGS THAT ARENITT CAESAR'S Paul Johnson American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research THE THINGS THATARENOf CAESAR'S The Francis Boyer Lectures on Public Policy THE THINGS THATARENITT CAESAR'S Paul Johnson American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research ISBN 0-8447-1337-6 Second printing, May 1981 Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 80-67987 © 1980 by American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from the American Enterprise Institute except in the case of brief quotations embodiedin news articles, critical articles, or reviews. The views expressed in the publications of the American Enterprise Institute are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflectthe views of the staff, advisory panels, officers, or trustees of AEI. "American Enterprise Institute" and � are registered service marks of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Printed in the United States of America American Enterprise Institute 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 THE FRANCIS BOYER LECTURES ON PUBLIC POLICY The American Enterprise Institute has initiated the Francis Boyer Lectures on Public Policy to examine the relationship between business and government and to develop contexts for their creative interaction. These lectures have been made possible by an endowment from the SmithKline Corporation in memory of Mr. Boyer, the late chairman of the board of the corporation. The lecture is given by an eminent thinker who has developed notable insights on one or more aspects of the relationship between the nation's private and public sectors. Focusing clearly on the public interest, the lecture demon strates how new conceptual insights may illuminate public policy issues and contribute significantly to the dialogue by which the public interest is served. The man or woman delivering the lecture need not necessarily be a professional scholar, a government official, or a business leader. The lecture would concern itself with the central issues of public policy in contemporary America pointing always in the direction of constructive solutions rather than merely delineating opposing views. v Lecturers may come from any walk of life-academia, the humanities, public service, science, finance, the mass media of communications, business, and industry. The princi pal considerations determining the selection are the quality and appositeness of the lecturer's thought, rather than his or her formal qualifications. The Francis Boyer Lecture is delivered annually in Washington, D.C., before an invited audience. The lecturer is selected by the American Enterprise lnstitute's distin guished Council of Academic Advisers, and the lectureship carries an award and stipend of $10,000. The American Enterprise Institute publishes the lecture as the Francis Boyer Lectures on Public Policy. The initial recipient of the Francis Boyer award was Gerald R. Ford, thirty-eighth president of the United States and the Distinguished Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. The second recipient of the award was Dr. Arthur F. Burns, Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the American Enterprise Institute. Vl COUNCIL OF ACADEMIC ADVISERS OF THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE PAUL W. McCRACKEN, Chairman, Edmund Ezra Day University Professor of Business Administration, University of Michigan ROBERT H. BORK, Alexander M. Bickel Professor of Public Law, Yale Law School KENNETH W. DAM, Harold]. and Marion F. Green Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School DONALD C. HELLMANN, Professor of Political Science and International Studies, University of Washington D. GALE JoHNSON, Eliakim Hastings Moore Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Provost, University of Chicago ROBERT A. NrsBET, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute HERBERT STEIN, A. Willis Robertson Professor of Economics, University of Virginia ]AMES Q. WILSON, Henry Lee Shattnck Professor of Government, Harvard University vu PREFACE Paul Johnson brings to this third Boyer lecture the sweep of vision we might expect of an intellectual historian currently at work on nothing less than a history of the modern world. But he also brings to it an extraordinary familiarity with the political and social detail of our lives, as we might expect from one who has also enjoyed a successful career in journalism. In 1964, in his native Britain, Mr. Johnson became the editor of the influentialNew Statesman. As he found him self questioning the prevailing liberalism of the day, however, his views diverged from those of that weekly, and in 1970, he resigned to devote himself entirely to writing. He soon published two works of British history, The Offshore Islanders: From Roman Occupation to European Entry ( 1972) and Elizabeth I: A Study in Power and Intellect ( 1974). These were followed by his highly acclaimed History of Christianity (1976), and his controversial Enemies of Society (1977), a critique of leftist dogma in a number of disciplines. IX In 1980, the American Enterprise Institute named him the firstscholar to hold its DeWitt Wallace Chair in Com munications in a Free Society. His theme in the third annual Francis Boyer lecture is what he calls the modern "Frankenstein state," which exists not only in totalitarian countries, but in liberal democracies like Great Britain and the United States. Much of his dis turbing evidence is drawn from British experience, but he warns us that in almost every respect America is following in Britain's footsteps. In some ways, he contends, the Ameri can bureaucracy already is worse than anything he studied at home. Looking at the problem from a historical perspective, Mr. Johnson makes two main points. First, he argues that large-scale government intervention does not reflect progress and enlightenment. On the contrary, he believes it is a throwback to more primitive societies. The truly progressive pattern of society, he believes, began to emerge in the nineteenth century as capitalist democracies began to replace the overwhelming power of the state. Less authoritative governments allowed the individual and the market to achieve miracles of wealth creation and distribution. Mr. Johnson sees the Frankenstein state as the tragic offspring of two suicidal world wars and believes it is a gigantic aberration in the upward development of mankind. Second, he says the real duties of the state are defense of its territories from external assault, dispensing of even handed justice, and maintenance of an honest currency. The more illegitimate duties the state enters-"the things that are not Caesar's"-the less likely it will be able to discharge its primary duties. Mr. Johnson believes all three duties of the state are suffering today. He concludes on a note of hope, however. The evils of the Frankenstein state are beginning to be recog- x nized, he says, and public opinion is being alerted to correct them. Like the first two Francis Boyer lectures, delivered in 1977 by the Honorable Gerald R. Ford and in 1978 by Dr. Arthur F. Burns, Mr. Johnson's remarks are offered as part of AEI's continuing commitment to the betterment of the public policy process and a belief in the principle that competition of ideas is fundamental to a free society. WILLIAM J. BAROODY, JR. President American Enterprise Institute Xl INTRODUCTION The Francis Boyer Lecture is rapidly becoming a part of those processes that ultimately shape public policy. It is made possible through an endowment created by SmithKline Corporation in memory of Mr. Boyer, the former chairman of the company. The general theme of the lectures is the relationship between the nation's public sector and its private sector. The series was inaugurated in 1977 with an address by President Gerald R. Ford, followed in 1978 by the Honorable Arthur F. Burns. The third lecturer in this series is Mr. Paul Johnson of the United Kingdom. Our guest was educated at Stonyhurst and Magdalen College, Oxford, with a degree in history. To be sure about the pronunciation of his college's name, incidentally, I con sulted my dictionary-itself having somewhat of an Oxonian connection. Up front, as it were, the dictionary commended two pronunciations-Magdalen, and Magdalene. It went ahead to observe, however, that "the vernacular form of the word is Maudlin" and that "the pronunciation represented Xlll by this spelling is still current for the names of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Magdalene College, Cambridge." Mr. Johnson has spent much of his life in the world of ideas, and we are beginning to understand that what goes on in this world of ideas does, after all, influence the· subse quent world of policy and action. The work and career of our guest and, indeed, of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research illustrate what Alfred Marshall was talking about when he observed: The full importance of an epoch-making idea is often not perceived in the generation in which it is made: it starts the thoughts of the world on a new track, but the change of direc tion is not obvious until the turningpoint has been left some way behind.1 Mr. Johnson is widely noted for both his writings and his intellectual odyssey. From 1965 to 1970, he was editor of The New Statesman, an influential British weekly of the left. His views, however, began to change in the 1970s. In 1977, he wrote a political testament, Enemies of Society, that articulated the case against "the fascist left"-a book that was the source of controversy at home and in other nations. Mr. Johnson has also given time and energy to public service. Early in his career he was a captain in the British army, and from 1974 to 1977 he was a member of the Royal Commission on the Press. Our guest has, indeed, been a prolific writer.