Table Of ContentLESSONS FROM AMERICA
THE CONTRIBUTORS
Reyner Banham
History of Architecture, University of London
Marcus Cunliffe
American Studies, University of Sussex
Nicholas Deakin
Department of Planning and Transportation, Greater
London Council
Hugh Heclo
Research Associate, The Brookings Institution
TomHooson
European Director, Benton and Bowles International
A. N. Little
Head of Reference Division, Community Relations
Commission of Great Britain
H. G. Nicholas
Rhodes Professor of American Institutions, Oxford
Jim Potter
Economic History, London School of Economics
Richard Rose
Politics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
John Whale
Journalist, Sunday Times, London
Esmond Wright
United States Institute, University of London
LESSONS FROM
AMERICA:
An Exploration
Edited by
Richard Rose
University of Strathclyde
America, thou half-brother of the world;
With something good and bad of every land.
Philip James Bailey,
Festus: The Surface
MACMILLAN
Introduction, selection and editorial matter
© Richard Rose 1974
Chapter 1 © Marcus Cunliffe 1974
Chapter 2 © H. G. Nicholas 1974
Chapter 3 © Reyner Banh am 197 4
Chapter 4 © Jim Potter 1974
Chapter 5 © Richard Rose 197 4
Chapter 6 © Tom Hooson 1974
Chapter 7 © John Whale 197 4
Chapter 8 © Alan N. Little 1974
Chapter 9 © Nicholas Deakin 1974
Chapter 10 © Hugh Heclo 1974
Chapter 11 © Esmond Wright 1974
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1974 978-0-333-14300-1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission.
First published I974 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in New York
Dublin Melbourne Johannesburg and Madras
ISBN 978-1-349-01704-1 ISBN 978-1-349-01702-7(eBook)
DOI 10.1007/ 978-1-349-01702-7
Dedicated to
THOSE WHO CAME OUT
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
America: Inevitable or Inimitable? Richard Rose
PART ONE: MYTH AND HISTORY
New World, Old World: The Historical
Antithesis Marcus Cunliffe 19
2 The Relevance of Tocqueville H. G. Nicholas 46
3 Europe and American Design Reyner Banham 67
4 'You Too Can Have Statistics Like Mine': Some
Economic Comparisons Jim Potter
92
PART TWO: LESSONS DRAWN
5 A Model Democracy? Richard Rose 131
6 Exporting the Pursuit of Happiness TfJm Hooson 162
7 Public Broadcasting Policy John Whale 192
8 Compensatory Education and Race Relations: What
Lessons for Europe? Alan N. Little 211
9 On Some Perils of Imitation Nicholas Deakin 228
1 o The Welfare State: The Costs of American
Self-Sufficiency Hugh Heclo 253
11 America: The End of the Dream? Esmond Wright 283
The Contributors 301
Index
Acknowledgements
Like Phineas Fogg's trip around the world in eighty days, this
book owes its origin to a casual remark at the Reform Club,
London. The editor is therefore indebted to the late Sir
Charles Barry, architect of the Club, for providing such an
attractive place to meet for conversation. He is also indebted
to Robin Winks, Professor of History at Yale University, for
making him wonder aloud what would result from a careful
examination of the casual assertion that what happens in
America today must happen elsewhere tomorrow.
Dr Wayne Wilcox, Cultural Affairs Officer of the Ameri
can Embassy, London, provided assistance in bringing the con
tributors together for three days beside Loch Long in the
Western Highlands of Scotland. The weather kept us inside
Knockderry Castle long enough to get through a considerable
amount of valuable discussion. Scottish Television provided
material assistance. Mrs R. West and Mrs K. M. E. Liston sub
stantially aided the quick production of the final typescript.
S. M. Miller, Martin Rein and Rupert Wilkinson made very
useful contributions to our discussion of manuscripts.
RicHARD RosE
4 July 1973
America: Inevitable or Inimitable?
RicHARD RosE
Professor of Politics, University of Strathclyde
Two themes have always dominated the dialogue between
Americans and Europeans. The first is America's uniqueness;
no place else on earth can compare with the great colossus of
the New World. The second is that America is a forerunner
of what European societies will become tomorrow. While the
former idea presupposes that America is inimitable, the latter
assumes that it inevitably foretokens the fate of all Western
societies. The two assumptions are mutually exclusive: both
cannot be true. Yet the very familiarity and plausibility of
each is a reminder of how greatly our thinking about
America is based upon contradictions, rather than upon logi
cal analysis or the sceptical commonsense of a Philadelphia
philosophe.
The object of this book is deceptively simple: to consider
to what extent American experience is unique to the United
States, and to what extent it provides a model for the rest of
the world. In so far as the American experience is not
unique, then Europeans may, by looking at America, foresee
what their own country will be like tomorrow. In this uncer
tain age, few are likely to be so confident that anything is
inevitable. If Europeans see things in American society that
they do not wish to follow, then America can provide lessons
in how to avoid problems of post-industrial society. Alterna
tively, Europeans can use American examples to prod their
fellow-citizens to abandon obsolescent ways, thus hastening
the day when the fruits as well as the thorns of post-industrial
life spread across the Atlantic.
Americans have a particular stake in ascertaining whether
their society is unique or a prototype for the rest of the world.
If American civilization is not for export, then a significant
part of its foreign policy is built on false premises; the effort
to make the world safe for democracy by reshaping distant
America: Inevitable or Inimitable?
and often exotic societies in the image of the United States is
doomed to failure. The history of the Philippine Islands, the
land where the United States has had longest to exert its in
fluence, suggests that American ideas and institutions are not
easily transferred. Latter-day experience elsewhere in Asia
underscores this point. Even if the United States is not able
to remake the world in its image, it can still exert great influ
ence on the lives of many societies, in spheres as different as
work, leisure, politics and architecture. There is both plea
sure and reward for Americans in acting as missionaries for
secular change. A European might also note that if the rest of
the world can draw practical lessons from America, perhaps
the citizens of the New World might also find something be
side antiques worth importing from the Old.
Within the confines of a single volume, not all the ques
tions that arise in America's relations with Europe can be an
swered. But many can be raised. This volume is not intended
to provide slick but misleading answers, but rather to ensure
that the right questions are asked. It cannot be assumed that
each reader would wish to draw the same lesson from an
agreed body of knowledge. Evidence and argument in the
pages that follow cover a wide variety of subjects, from the
history of architecture (an engineering subject in America, as
it is an aesthetic subject in Europe) to politics and economics.
Each chapter should make each reader self-conscious about
the problems of projecting experience across the Atlantic to
demonstrate what can or can't happen here.
American society and the literature about it is vast and
complex. Any effort to generalize must involve people with
specialist knowledge in a variety of very different fields. The
contributors to this volume exemplify the breadth of subjects
touched by the American experience. Collectively, their
biographies show how varied are the motives that first lead
people to explore American society. In several cases there was
an explicit desire to learn from American experience in race
relations, education and advertising. For others, there was no
motive more definite than the desire to see a new part of the
world, and the existence of generous scholarships for trans
atlantic study. The two American-born authors were spurred
by the same motives, but travel led them in the opposite dir-
