Introduction SAMUEL C. PATTERSON University of Iowa https://doi.org/10.2307/1957897 We meet here today to hear the presidential ad- of greater realism in the portrayal of administra- . dress of a distinguished member of our Associa- tive behavior. tion, Professor Avery Leiserson. His professional Although it was not his first academic appoint- life has spanned the era from the Depression and ment—since he served briefly before the war at early New Deal through World War II and the Princeton University—in 1946 Professor Leiser- "behavioral revolution," and now he is basking son went back to the University of Chicago as a in the sunshine of the "postbehavioral era." Pro- faculty member, and during the late 1940s and fessor Leiserson was, in the days of the Great early 1950s he worked primarily upon supporting Depression, an undergraduate student at the Uni- efforts to enrich research on public opinion and versity of Illinois, and then a graduate student at political opinion formation.3 In 1952, he moved to the University of Chicago, where he got his Ph.D. his present academic location, Vanderbilt Uni- in 1941. At the University of Chicago, Leiserson versity, and during his years at Vanderbilt he https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms came under the very profound influence of served as departmental chairman, he was a Charles E. Merriam, and along with his contem- Brookings Senior Scholar in 1962-63, and he was poraries—Harold Lasswell, Harold Gosnell, V. O. named Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Service Key, Jr., Quincy Wright, Gabriel Almond, Her- Professor in 1966. While at Vanderbilt he wrote bert Simon, David Truman and others—carried Parties and Politics (1958), coauthored Govern- the influence of Merriam, the founder of modern, ment and Politics (1966), and edited The American behavioral political science, to universities and South in the 1960s (1965).4 colleges across the land. Avery Leiserson has accumulated an impressive Just as other political scientists did, Leiserson record of distinguished service to the profession worked for the government in the early days of of political science. In the 1950s, he was con- the New Deal—for the National Recovery Ad- cerned to find ways to provide adequate support ministration, the National Labor Relations for research for a new generation of political Board, and the National Defense Mediation scientists who carried on Merriam's commitment Board. And, with many others, Avery Leiserson to systematic inquiry into political realities. He "went to Washington" during World War II, devoted great effort to the work of the Social working with the Bureau of the Budget during the Science Research Council. He was one of the , subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at years 1942 to 1945. These years undoubtedly gave early recipients of an SSRC grant while he was a him a sense of the urgency of Merriam's teachings graduate student. In 1950, he began fourteen about the importance to political science of politi- years of service on the SSRC Committee on Politi- cal reality. Through these years of the late 1930s cal Behavior, and for three of those years he and 1940s, he wrote about executive reorganiza- served on the SSRC Board of Directors. As a tion, administrative policy, and especially about professor in a southern university, he served ac- the role of political interest groups in the adminis- tively in the Southern Political Science Associa- 1 27 Sep 2021 at 21:26:25 trative process. His first book, Administrative tion, editing the Journal of Politics in the mid- , on Regulation, was published in 1942 by the Uni- 1950s and serving as President of the Southern versity of Chicago Press.2 In this study, Leiserson Association in the mid-1960s. His professional documented the importance of the group process service to the American Political Science Associa- in administration and illustrated the larger theme 3 170.106.33.19 See "Opinion Research and the Political Process," 1 See his "Political Limitations on Executive Re- Public Opinion Quarterly, 13 (Spring 1949), 31-38; organization," American Political Science Review, 41 and "Notes on the Theory of Political Opinion Forma- (February 1947), 68-74; and his chapters on "The tion," American Political Science Review, Al (March Study of Public Administration," "Interest Groups in 1953), 171-177. IP address: Administration," and "The Formulation of Administra- 4 See Parties and Politics: An Institutional and tive Policy," in Elements of Public Administration, ed. Behavioral Approach (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Fritz Morstein Marx (New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1958); John C. Wahlke, Alex N. Dragnich, et al., 1946), pp. 27-50, 314-338, 365-380. Government and Politics: An Introduction to Politi- 2 Administrative Regulation: A Study in Represen- cal Science, 2nd ed. (New York: Random House, tation of Interests (Chicago: University of Chicago 1971); and, The American South in the 1960's Press, 1942). Leiserson also contributed to the in- (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964). Leiserson's terest in the 1950s in the internal politics of private opus on political parties was previewed by an arti- groups. See "Problems of Representation in the cle "The Place of Parties in the Study of Politics," Government of Private Groups," Journal of Politics, American Political Science Review, 51 (December 11 (August 1949), 566-577. 1957), 943-954. https://www.cambridge.org/core 172 Downloaded from 1975 Introduction 173 tion is long-standing. I first got briefly acquainted His views on values and scientific inquiry are with Avery Leiserson when I went to a pre-con- illustrated in his conviction that "political scien- vention, week-long conference in 1957 at Prince- tists who do notpretend to omniscience or aspire ton University designed to launch young political to political responsibility, but who nonetheless scientists into productive careers. Leiserson was a have a keen sense of knowledge-as-power, to be https://doi.org/10.2307/1957897 . conference leader, along with Austin Ranney and acquired and exercised in trusteeship for the Earl Latham. He had just taken over the tasks of public good, should answer that on the level of Book Review Editor for the Review. The subse- values and purposes their function is to clarify, quent high points of his service to the Association articulate, and criticize the goal values and insti- have, of course, been his election as Vice-President tutional effects of popular beliefs and preferences, in 1966, as President-Elect in 1972, and his current the acts of political representatives and leaders, year as President of the American Political and the issues and proposals of influential groups Science Association. and policy-makers who collectively compose the 9 As I read the scholarly work of Avery Leiser- decision-making process of society." son, I find four themes to be of greatest interest: Finally, Avery Leiserson has been a realist. He (1) his interest in research methodology; (2) his sought to understand and explain the role of https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms concern about values; (3) his devotion to scien- private interest groups in the administrative pro- tific inquiry; and (4) his emphasis on realism. cess, to construct a comparative analysis of politi- This is not the place to recount President Leiser- cal parties, and to analyze partisan behavior in son's scholarly achievements in all of their sub- congressional districts with an eye to patterns of tlety. But his early and continuous interest in re- conflict among contending forces, sources of op- search methodology has influenced many of our position, tension, and hostility among leaders, contemporaries. I was especially influenced as a parties and groups, and the bases of a politics of graduate student at the University of Wisconsin conflict in public opinion and behavior.10 In his by Leiserson's seminal paper on "Problems of keynote address on the opening of the Duke Uni- Methodology in Political Research."5 In that versity Center for Southern Studies in the Social paper, and in his subsequent writings, he empha- Sciences and Humanities in 1966, he spoke about sized the compatibility of so-called behavioral and institutional approaches to political analysis, the desirability of orienting analytical inquiries to the arguing that "there is no necessary reason for dynamic interaction of conditioning or determining vari- excluding studies of organized structure and pro- ables in behavior, to the end that objective evidence cess from the scope of political behavior re- may be produced for our fellow citizens and policy- 8 makers willing to use their senses and intelligence. In , subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at search." If we had been able to listen more colloquial terms, our function may be described as closely to Professor Leiserson, the trivialities of that of society's non-secret CIA, showing to all who the less-than-cosmic confrontation of behavioral will listen that: (a) things that were thought to be versus institutional political science might have necessary and inevitable aren't necessarily so, and (b) been avoided. Avery Leiserson's professional life things that were thought to be impossible may, under has been guided by a clear sense of values, and certain conditions, be brought about. The job of the especially a sense of the value of democracy. Like social scientist is less to predict how things will hap- pen, than to reveal how things do happen, to delineate 27 Sep 2021 at 21:26:25 Merriam, Leiserson has always maintained the trends, to specify probable effects, and to indicate the , on relevancy of political inquiry to the development 7 conditions under which alternative goals may be and perfection of a democratic polity. At the achieved."11 same time, his teaching always has stressed the importance of scientific inquiry—of formal the- More recently, in an essay on "Realism and Com- 170.106.33.19 ory, hypotheses, systematic gathering of appropri- ate data, statistical analysis, and deductive logic.