The Competitiveness of Nations
in a Global Knowledge-Based Economy
April 2003
Eli Ginzberg
The Social Sciences
Today
Political Science Quarterly
Volume 52, Issue 4
Dec. 1937, 583-587.
TOWARD the end of the
eighteenth century there appeared in England three superb contributions to the
social sciences: Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Smith’s The
Wealth of Nations, Bentham’s Morals and
Legislation. These were products of
university men but not of academicians. Gibbon
and Bentham never held a university post; Smith
resigned his at the first opportune moment. Each had studied at Oxford, each had come away
convinced that “nothing could possibly be learnt at Oxford.” Yet, their inadequate schooling proved a
limited liability. These men found it
possible to solve the major enigma of history, to synthesize the economic
behavior of men and nations, to outline the basic relations of citizens to a
state. Clearly, their solutions were not
perfect but they were so superior in form and content that they won the acclaim
of all literate men.
Shortly thereafter, while
England was busy digesting power machinery and France was preoccupied with the
antics of Napoleon, Prussia completed a silent revolution. She reorganized her universities, a move
imitated eventually by neighbors near and far. This reformation was of substantial moment. The physical sciences began to flourish; the
advances of technology followed closely; the material foundations of modern
civilization were reconstructed. Less
spectacular but only slightly less pervasive was the incidence of university
reform upon the social sciences. The
doctrines of the historian, the economist, the political philosopher did much
to mould contemporary thought which in turn influenced greatly the institutions
of nationalism, capitalism and democracy.
As decade followed decade,
the social sciences were ever more completely monopolized by the universities;
competition from interlopers became exceedingly rare. This trend had important implications. The university staff was recruited primarily
from the upper classes, the same classes which through the media of gifts, of
clerical power and of statecraft exercised a determining influence upon general
* Authority and the Individual: Harvard Tercentenary
Publications. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1937. x,
371 pp. $3.00.
583
policy. The
hierarchical structure of the universities enhanced conformity; advancement
depended upon the good will of elders, a factor which led to the abortion of
many a radical idea.
The constant increase in
the number of students contributed greatly to the standardization of the
curriculum; of necessity, great value was attached to systematic presentations.
The popularity of classical economics
was in part a function of its logic, easy to expound and easy to comprehend; the
rapid growth of the evolutionary approach to history can largely be ascribed to
the pedagogical virtues of long lists of dates and names. The fact that captains of industry found
classical economics soothing, that nationalists were able to utilize effectively
the recordings of the historian, did little to undermine the prestige of these
approaches.
Teaching and research were
inseparable; the university professor engaged in both. The same forces which made
teaching staid and formal confined research to narrow bounds. But the ivory tower had a road which led to
the thoroughfare, for the recluse needed food. By the end of the nineteenth century a
powerful force was ready to jolt the social sciences out of their equanimity.
The success of the physical
sciences in conquering matter and the marked inability of the social sciences
to control man provided a contrast irritating to the point of action. Students of economics, history and politics
began to imitate the methods of their proficient confreres. The accumulation of new facts and the more
exact measurement of old facts became the keynote of reform. The libraries filled rapidly with the accounts
of the activities of nations and men, ancient and modern, major and minor. With the passage of years, the scholars
redoubled their efforts; not even the World War interfered radically with their
assiduity. Finally, a product of the War
- the romanticism of the vanquished which found expression in the most
unromantic of revolutions - broke the tradition. But only in part. Outside of Germany, the universities continued
in their accustomed ways, bemoaning the loss of their esteemed compeer, little
interested in autopsy or augury.
What the eclipse of
Berlin and Heidelberg was unable to achieve, the Tercentenary of Harvard
finally accomplished. The contributions
of science and scholarship to modern life formed the center of the celebration,
establishing thereby an opportunity for the taking of inventory. The five symposia were participated
in by the elite of the academic world; the selection was most favorably skewed.
Much attention was devoted to the social
sciences; the symposium entitled
584
Authority and the Individual concerned itself with the “economic, social,
political, and intellectual factors in the structure of society which act upon
the individual through social institutions and through accepted ideas.” These sixteen lectures present material highly
favorable for the appraisal of fifty years of intensive work.
A cursory review suggests
that imitation of method has not led to identity of results; “the sciences of
social behavior lag far behind the natural sciences in certainty.” Reality has not been brought under control. The lectures on “The State and Economic Enterprise”
recall vividly the impotence of economic thought during the devastating
depression of recent years. “Stability
and Social Change” may be a convenient title for the enlightening essays on
conservative factors in early colonial and recent British history, but
sociological theories have been of small moment during the social convulsions
of the last decades. The symbolic and
instrumental values of legal systems are discussed in “The Place and Function
of Authority”; the Greek Spirit and the Constitutional Convention are studied. But this century has witnessed the double
cross make way for the hammer and sickle; it has watched the exit of the
Hohenzollerns who reigned by the grace of God and the entrance of the bellicose
mystic who rules in the name of the Aryan spirit. The fickleness of words and the inconstancy of
ideas are illustrated in “Classicism and Romanticism”. But these learned discourses on the relativity
of thought are like whispers in a hurricane of propaganda.
Economic depression,
political revolution, the transvaluations of legal
systems, mass psychoses - these, the increasingly typical phenomena of Western
civilization - underline the failure of the social sciences to control
behavior. Nor can the sententiousness of
the addresses hide the fact that at the moment of their delivery the nations of
the world, East and West, were hastening final
preparations for a war which will render beyond recognition, if it will not
completely destroy, the major institutions of modern life.
The physicist advances from
victories over the atom to victories over the electron; the biologist brings vitamins and then hormones to the aid of men; the
economist and the historian have little to show for their labors. But theirs is a study of men in groups. Social life implies control, control implies
power, power implies conflict. The more dynamic a society, the more probable
the conflict, for the great conservative institutions - the law, the church,
the school - operate most efficiently in a static environment. But the phenomenal vitality of modern
technology leads “to ever new conquests. The economic
585
system is caught up in the advance… the political system
follows in the rear… with strange twistings and
tergiversations.” Impotent is thought
when in direct conflict with gold and the sword.
This failure of “organized
intelligence” to control social behavior is not overlooked, yet an optimism of
startling intensity runs through the essays. It is an optimism born of evasion. Silence reigns on the subject of
predestination, spiritual and material; slight cognizance is taken of the
difficulties inherent in the conversion of large numbers; almost nothing is
said of the alternative goals of salvation. It is suggested, however, that the period of
experimentation has been too short, that the continued application of the
methods of the natural sciences will eventually bring results.
Chercher, chercher encore. Regarder de plus près, pour remplacer, s’il est possible, les approximations par les certitudes… revenir aux faits, et a la
critique des faits.” This hope, like all hopes, cannot be proven
false; yet skepticism seems in place. It
appears unlikely that additional tomes on the history
of trade unionism will bring an end to industrial strife or that detailed
studies of imperialism will satisfy the appetites of hungry nations. Society is not subject to conscious control,
not even by students of social behavior.
Are the social sciences a
fraud, and social scientists impostors? This
world produces many goods: cosmetics please the eye; drink warms the stomach;
books gratify the mind. Knowledge about
the structure and operation of social institutions is sought by many and the
social sciences are concerned with fulfilling this demand. However, the queries will never permit of more
than partial solution, for the facts accumulate too quickly and each
investigator, by virtue of his unique personality, sees the facts somewhat
differently. Theories without facts are
as bad as facts without theories. Mr.
Hoover’s The Challenge to Liberty is indicative of the first, the 152 volumes on The Economic and
Social History of the World War are typical of the second.
The social scientists can
deal with only a limited number of facts: considerations of time, of space and
of knowledge enforce a rigid selection. Choice
of the strategic factors is of primary significance. If the independent variables are correctly
appraised, the exclusion of the dependent variables will not prove serious. The test of genius is not so much the
discovery of new facts, as the discovery of new relations between old facts. Sex and illness were known to the ancients,
but Freud was the first to disclose the role of sexuality in the genesis of the
neuroses.
586
Institutions are in the
process of constant change. With the exception
of history, the social sciences, though interested in the analysis of the
present, are primarily concerned with the divination of the future. Hence, the search for the strategic is really
a search for the emergent, which if successful may have most important consequences.
St. Paul realized that the masses were
seeking a new orientation; the Gospels helped greatly to condition that
development. Adam Smith sensed the wide-scale
dissatisfaction with governmental restraints; The Wealth of Nations helped
speed the enthronement of laissez faire. The books of the great can influence social
behavior, even though the great cannot directly control it. The reward for discerning the trend is the
privilege of becoming the mouthpiece for the silent but aspirant multitude.
The constant alteration in
the structure of society establishes a very high rate of obsolescence in the
social sciences. The best work must soon
become more or less inadequate. But the
social sciences are monopolized by the universities, institutions whose
entrenched interests and occupational routines lead to the enshrinement of the
traditional. The new is uncertain and
probably unsafe; what is worse, it frequently does not permit of imitation and
that which cannot be imitated is of slight pedagogical value. It is hardly surprising to find therefore that
the two outstanding contributions to modern economics were made by Marx, who
never held an academic post, and by Veblen, who never
achieved a full professorship. Likewise,
the academic world might search in vain to match Trotsky’s History of the
Russian Revolution or T. E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The specialists will point out errors in
each, many and serious errors. But in
the social sciences the errors of commission are not nearly so
serious as the errors of omission. The
truth can never be more than suggested; it can assuredly never be captured in
its entirety.
For many
years to come the social sciences will probably remain the almost exclusive
property of the university. New blood and red blood are essential for
their health, but men who live within cloistered walls are frequently anemic. The Harvard Tercentenary by encouraging
self-analysis contributed greatly to the disturbance of the established. Flickers and flutters are a sign of life and
the more frequent the quiver and quake, the less the need for worry. One mourns only for the dead.
Eli Ginzberg
Columbia University
587
The Competitiveness of Nations
in a Global Knowledge-Based Economy
April 2003