Daniel Patrick Moynihan
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By: Harvard University Press
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
A call to arms for a political social science 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.
First, let's realize what this book isn't. It is not a collection of previous essays, although it excerpts heavily from a number of essays, both from the 60s and the 90s. It is also not a memoir.It's an argument for a different role for the social sciences in policy making. First, it's an argument by repeated example of the predictive power of the social sciences. And, second, it's a call for social scientists and the government to start doing work seriously on the issues of the day.
So, first. He's telling us that we can do social science that tells us things about the world that we live in. Like what? One, government supervision of the economy from WWII to the present day. Two, his observation in the 70s that the Soviet Union was already in the early stages of collapse. Three, his argument that the illegitimacy rates where (1) going to skyrocket and (2) that it would be a problem. He tells us that these were not mysterious phenomena and that had the data not been ignored, public policy could have addressed them appropriately. This is important, partly to remind us of it, but also to challenge some writers on the right, such as Thomas Sowell, who argues, essentially, the opposite.
Second, this book argues that both the social scientists and the politicians need to take social science seriously. And, furthermore, part of the problem is the liberal professionalization of "Do Gooders". Why wasn't illegitimacy attacked in the 60s and 70s? Because some of the people on the left really are as morally squishy as the people on the right say they are! They were afraid to push a family structure, especially a "traditional" one.. Furthermore, he argues, that this phenomenon had been described by Durkheim in the Rules of Sociological Method.
This book is, in the end, a call for a scientifically-informed moderate social policy. A social policy that is not afraid to speak of "values" and, indeed, "family values", but is also understands the sociology behind the modern/urban/liberal context. Furthermore, it's proof-by-example that it is achievable.
Editorial Review:
When his 1965 report to President Johnson, "The Negro Family: The Case For National Action," identified the breakdown of the traditional family as a major cause of African-American poverty and crime, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was roundly attacked by liberals for "blaming the victims." Since then the debate has shifted in his direction and he has been in the forefront of many debates on welfare. His latest book on the subject mixes historical perspective, personal reminiscence, and his comments on the state of welfare today. His focus remains the family, and particularly the problem of illegitimacy and single welfare mothers, whom he believes trapped in dependency by the current system. Moynihan is hard on successive administrations for failing to heed his warnings. Contrarily he berates the Clinton administration too for its attempt at reform in 1996, predicting dire consequences.
