NEOCONSERVATISM
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solution for the problems confronting us. That strikes me as quite
significant. I think it's the first time any social intellectual move–
ment was not able to justify itself on the basis of what ideas or
programs it had for the solution of existing social problems, for the
improvemen t of existing society. The second thing that puzzled me is
the definition of democracy. Maybe I misunderstood James Wilson,
but it does seem to me that from what I know of history, most, if not
all antidemocratic movements got their source, their energy, and
their rationale from the idea of the slogan that democracy wasn't
working, that democracy was not achieving superior ends which
were of greater value to society. Anyhow, Norman Birnbaum is the
next speaker.
NORMAN BIRNBAUM
It seems to me that so-called neoconservatism is an incomplete or
unachievable amalgam of very diverse themes and very diverse group–
ings and movements, of different impulses, and I think James Wilson
was quite right to contrast his own background with that of the
cultural background of some of the other proponents of what can
hardly be called a movement. It is, rather, a tendency, a mood, a tempo,
or even a fashion. However, if we try to analyze that, a number of
themes emerge.
The first theme is the primacy of the market, that is
to
say, a belief
in the efficacy of the free market and of a relatively unregulated form of
corporate capitalism. And the arguments are made in the first instance
from efficiency, that this is the best way to get goods produced and
distributed, and secondly from liberty, the maintenance of an extremely
strong private sector is indeed a guarantor of political liberty. And of
course in these arguments the negative sides tend to be overlooked, in
some cases jeered at: mainly the argument that a pure cost benefit or
social market cost benefit ana lysis would not necessarily produce or
give us socially valuable or desirable goods and services, and second
that the present structure of the American economy entails an enor–
mous concentration of decision-making power in the economic sector,
and a large capacity to influence the political sector of government,
politics, and opinion formation.
The second theme is the critique of large government, or central–
ized government, of government initiative. The critique of big govern–
ment rests on several familiar ideas: bureaucratization, the autonomy
