AHI Academic Advisor Harvey Mansfield Interviewed on the Crisis of American Self-Government

The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI) congratulates Harvey Mansfield; William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University and AHI academic advisor, who recently spoke on the current Crisis of American Self-Government in an interview published in the November 30 issue of the Wall Street Journal.

Sohrab Ahmari, Assistant Books Editor of the Journal, notes that 2012 marks Professor Mansfield’s fiftieth year of teaching at Harvard.  “Few have thought as hard, or as much, about how democracies can preserve individual liberty and national virtue as the eminent political scientist Harvey Mansfield,” Mr. Ahmari writes. “When it comes to assessing the state of the American experiment in self-government today, his diagnosis is grim, and he has never been one to mince words.”

Professor Mansfield reflects on the Election of 2012, the growth of the entitlement state, and the tension between liberty and equality in the practice of politics.  Despite concerns about statist redistributions and “loss of the national soul,” Professor Mansfield remains optimistic about the prospect of a national recovery.  “Our main resource,” he says in conclusion, “is the Constitution.”