A Progressive HKS
by Jesse Lava, Opinions Columnist on April 13, 2010 in Heresies, Opinion
A group of reformers once paid a visit to President Franklin Roosevelt to seek his help in passing a progressive bill. He replied, “I agree with you; I want to do it; now make me do it.”
His point was profound: social change doesn’t come from the good intentions of benevolent leaders. It comes from pressure — organized, effective pressure that compels leaders to make change happen. If the people lead, the leaders will follow.
Here at HKS, many of us think about change differently. Yes, we want to make a positive difference. But let’s not kid ourselves; this school is an establishment-minded place. Much of what we’re taught is about tweaking the system. Block grant or matching grant? Tax credit or deduction? Expand or shrink a program’s eligibility standards?
These kinds of questions are important, even crucial. But they too often pre-empt more fundamental questions: What kind of society do we want to be? How should our economy be structured? What about a foreign policy that isn’t centered entirely around U.S. interests? And how can we create the political climate necessary for our leaders to enact bold reforms?
In spending so much time learning how to fine-tune the system in a politically feasible way, we sometimes forget there’s another route to progress. This is the route of outsiders, of agitators, of social movements. It’s the route of progressive advocacy — of bending the arc of history toward justice. It’s about creating new political realities, ones rooted in human dignity and the common good, rather than merely reacting to the realities we already face. It’s about moving the political center instead of moving to the political center.
To be sure, we get a bit of this stuff in ethics class, and professors like Marshall Ganz teach grassroots organizing around shared values. But the culture of HKS tends to genuflect to the powers-that-be. It’s in the lingo we use, the questions we ask, the speakers we see, the essays we write. After all, when we spot a bunch of black, bulletproof SUVs outside the courtyard and know another head of state is here to grace us with a self-justifying, platitude-laden address, we all cram into the Forum to watch it.
This place could use more of the “audacity to hope” that Rev. Jeremiah Wright (ahem) talked about. If an endeavor doesn’t require audacity, it doesn’t require much hope.
The HKS Progressive Caucus was started last semester to help add a little more audacity to this school. The idea was that broadening the political conversation would do HKS some good. I recently organized the caucus’s first major event: a panel of activists discussing how to bring about positive change now that Democrats control Congress and the White House. Ganz moderated, and 115 people were on hand.
The Progressive Caucus will doubtless have additional events soon, but here at HKS, we need more than a few events. We need a cultural shift in how our school conceives of public service.
What would such a shift look like?
We would show as much reverence for the community organizer as we do for the big city mayor.
We would make it a priority to showcase independent journalists that uncover government and corporate wrongdoing, even if they’re not famous like the network talking heads.
We would ensure that students are familiar with alternatives to neoclassical economics.
We would give nonprofit advocacy as much airtime as nonprofit service delivery.
We would undertake a serious examination of the rise of corporate power — one of the defining characteristics of our time — and its implications for political and economic democracy.
We would give students an understanding of the West’s role in causing (not just failing to prevent) human rights abuses throughout the world, so that future policymakers are better prepared to acknowledge and uproot these abuses.
We would, in short, broaden the school’s vision of what’s possible in the world of politics and public policy.
That’s what a more progressive HKS would look like. And what a difference it would make, as we send hundreds of leaders into the world each year with the eagerness to dream big dreams for our country and our world. HKS wouldn’t just be the school that works the system; it would be the school that changes the system.
Can we get there? Here’s hoping.
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