The New American Dilemma - Liberal Democracy and School Desegregation (Paperback)

Princeton political scientist Hochschild puts school desegregation policy in a large theoretical framework - with a direct challenge to Gunnar Myrdal's 1944 American Dilemma and significant results at various levels. Hochschild has an array of evidence that "incrementalism" - gradualism, piecemeal change - works poorly, that "making many simultaneous changes achieves more desegregation goals and avoids more problems." She can also argue, to some effect, that "both minorities and Anglos end up worse-off in a half-hearted, restricted, timid - but more popular - 'reform' than if nothing had been done." (Race relations worsen, black self-esteem declines, white flight intensifies.) Her second major contention is that "pluralism," or popular control as represented by "majority public opinion," does not bring about "better desegregation" either - "as Myrdal and his fellows believe." Citizen planning groups not only waste time, they may cause harm - in that the concurrence they foster usually comes "at the relative expense of minorities." (In Dallas, "the businessmen's plan that left out so many minorities also convinced hostile whites to accept busing of seventeen thousand Anglos" - "no mean feat," but not an outcome to cheer either.) But even if citizen participation of any kind benefits whites disproportionately (from their higher participation, the greater influence of the "active and wealthy"), isn't it good for its own sake? Reaching the heart of her theoretical argument, Hochschild's answer is no: citing white non-support for mandatory desegregation, she writes - "if most citizens choose not to grant the rest of the citizens their full rights, then perhaps democracy must give way to liberalism." (Subsequently: "By liberalism I mean rights.") We now have three choices, as she sees it. We might "muddle along"; we might abandon mandatory desegregation, and seek "viable alternatives"; or, Hochschild's preference, we might "decide to retain our goal of eradicating racism through school desegregation and will the means necessary to that end." The "trauma" is worth venturing, she argues: blacks benefit, white discomfort lessens, the Southern public ("strange but true"), with most experience of integrated schools, is more supportive of integration. The discussion of race relations goes deeper - "Do whites really not hold the ideals that Myrdal attributes to them?" Is racism an anomaly? Important 30 years after Brown, and provocative wherever Hochschild's sharp, darting intellect alights. (Kirkus Reviews)

Conventional wisdom and democratic theory hold that the best way to achieve controversial policy changes is in small, cautious steps and with participation of the various groups involved. Yet America's thirty years of experience with school desegregation shows this belief to be false. In this provocative new book, Jennifer Hochschild argues that when incremental and participatory methods are used to desegregate schools, both blacks and whites end up worse off-with little freedom and equality for blacks, much disruption and pain for both races, and few educational gains for anyone. However, school desegregation can succeed-for everyone-when rapid and extensive change is imposed by nonelected officials, at a centralized level, and without citizen involvement. Hochschild examines the record of school desegregation to show why this is so. She demonstrates, for example, that parental advisory groups have been ineffective or even harmful in designing new plans; that busing a few students short distances has been less effective than busing many students throughout a metropolitan area; that slowly phasing in desegregation increases white flight. More profoundly, she shows that racism is deeply embedded in our society and that whites may not be as willing to give it up as they think. Hochschild contends that we must choose between superficial "safe" changes that benefit a few at the expense of many and profound, deeply unpopular changes that in the long run will liberate most. That is the real American dilemma. "A comprehensive synthesis of what is known about the processes of school desegregation and a powerful policy-oriented argument on a subject whose crucial significance Americans have been unable to wish away." -Paul E. Peterson, Brookings Institution

General

Imprint:	Yale University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Yale Fastback Series
Release date:	September 1984
First published:	October 1984
Authors:	Jennifer L. Hochschild
Dimensions:	210 x 140 x 15mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	264
ISBN-13:	978-0-300-03114-0
Categories:	Books > Social sciences > Education > General
LSN:	0-300-03114-9
Barcode:	9780300031140

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