Edward C. Banfield
Encyclopedia
Edward Christie Banfield (1916–1999) was an American
political scientist
, best known as the author of The Moral Basis of a Backward Society
(1958), and The Unheavenly City (1970). One of the leading scholars of his generation, Banfield was an adviser to Republican
presidents (Richard Nixon
, Gerald Ford
, and Ronald Reagan
). Banfield began his academic career at the University of Chicago
, where he was a friend and colleague of Leo Strauss
and Milton Friedman
. In 1959, Banfield went to Harvard, where he remained for the rest of his career, except for a brief tenure at the University of Pennsylvania
.
, and attended the University of Connecticut
, where he studied English
and agriculture
.
His wife, Laura Fasano Banfield, learned Italian
as a child, and helped her husband with his book about a poor village in southern Italy
(The Moral Basis of a Backward Society). She also collaborated with Harvey Mansfield
on a translation of Machiavelli
’s Florentine Histories
. She died in 2006.
Banfield’s son, Elliott, is an artist/designer/cartoonist in New York City
; his daughter, Laura, is founding partner of law firm Hoguet, Newman, & Regal, LLP and the mother of three daughters, Laura Kosar, Helen LaCroix, and Marie Hoguet.
and the New Deal
, he gradually became skeptical of government attempts to construct housing, support the arts, etc. Long before Lyndon B. Johnson
's Great Society
programs, Banfield had decided that government aid to the poor would make the givers of aid feel virtuous, but wouldn’t improve the lives of the receivers of aid. He argued that "the real reason for the passage" of the legislation establishing the National Endowment for the Arts
"was, and is, to benefit . . . the culture industry of New York City
."
Banfield's views were controversial, and The Unheavenly City sparked much debate. According to MacInnes, Banfield:
His Harvard colleagues described him as “an individual with a strong and distinctive character that impressed itself on all who met him,” and as a man who enjoyed “the delights of humor, long meals, and friendly company." Banfield had "a reputation as a brilliant maverick", and his "books and articles had a sharp contrarian edge. He was a critic of almost every mainstream liberal
idea in domestic policy, especially the use of Federal aid to help relieve urban
poverty
."
Banfield taught many conservative scholars, including James Q. Wilson
and Thomas Sowell
. He also taught Christopher DeMuth
and Bruce Kovner
, leading figures at the conservative think-tank, American Enterprise Institute
. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1961.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
political scientist
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, best known as the author of The Moral Basis of a Backward Society
The Moral Basis of a Backward Society
The Moral Basis of a Backward Society is a book by Edward C. Banfield, a political scientist who visited Montegrano , Italy in 1955 and observed a self interested , family centric society which sacrificed the public good for the sake of nepotism and the immediate family...
(1958), and The Unheavenly City (1970). One of the leading scholars of his generation, Banfield was an adviser to Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
presidents (Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
, and Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
). Banfield began his academic career at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where he was a friend and colleague of Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss was a political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States...
and Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...
. In 1959, Banfield went to Harvard, where he remained for the rest of his career, except for a brief tenure at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
.
- "... his lack of interest in constitutional rules, acceptance of national expansion, and lack of enthusiasm about local government put him at odds with mainstream conservatism."
His family
Banfield grew up on a farm in Bloomfield, ConnecticutBloomfield, Connecticut
Bloomfield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,626 at the 2009 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and 0.2 square miles is water.Bloomfield is bordered by Windsor to the...
, and attended the University of Connecticut
University of Connecticut
The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
, where he studied English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
and agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
.
His wife, Laura Fasano Banfield, learned Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
as a child, and helped her husband with his book about a poor village in southern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
(The Moral Basis of a Backward Society). She also collaborated with Harvey Mansfield
Harvey Mansfield
Harvey Claflin Mansfield, Jr. is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1962. He has held Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships and has been a Fellow at the National Humanities Center; he also received the National Humanities Medal in 2004 and...
on a translation of Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian historian, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He is one of the main founders of modern political science. He was a diplomat, political philosopher, playwright, and a civil servant of the Florentine Republic...
’s Florentine Histories
Florentine Histories
Florentine Histories is a historical account by Italian Renaissance political scientist and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, first published posthumously in 1532.-Background:...
. She died in 2006.
Banfield’s son, Elliott, is an artist/designer/cartoonist in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
; his daughter, Laura, is founding partner of law firm Hoguet, Newman, & Regal, LLP and the mother of three daughters, Laura Kosar, Helen LaCroix, and Marie Hoguet.
Involvement with government aid programs
He worked for several government agencies, traveled in the West, and observed the effects of government projects. Although he initially supported President Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
, he gradually became skeptical of government attempts to construct housing, support the arts, etc. Long before Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
's Great Society
Great Society
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States promoted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and fellow Democrats in Congress in the 1960s. Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice...
programs, Banfield had decided that government aid to the poor would make the givers of aid feel virtuous, but wouldn’t improve the lives of the receivers of aid. He argued that "the real reason for the passage" of the legislation establishing the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
"was, and is, to benefit . . . the culture industry of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
."
Banfield's views were controversial, and The Unheavenly City sparked much debate. According to MacInnes, Banfield:
- made a simple and well-documented case that the problems played out in ghetto neighborhoods were a consequence of concentrated lower-class populations. Race was not the critical issue, he said. The black poor, Banfield suggested, were no different from other (white) lower-class Americans: they had no fondness for work, no strong family ties, an easy acceptance of criminal behavior, no brief for schooling, and no future perspective. Banfield argued that even well-pruned government programs could not undo the harm caused by class differences. For this sin, Banfield was effectively banished from one campus after another, his books vandalized, his lectures shouted down, and his sponsors threatened.
His Harvard colleagues described him as “an individual with a strong and distinctive character that impressed itself on all who met him,” and as a man who enjoyed “the delights of humor, long meals, and friendly company." Banfield had "a reputation as a brilliant maverick", and his "books and articles had a sharp contrarian edge. He was a critic of almost every mainstream liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
idea in domestic policy, especially the use of Federal aid to help relieve urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
."
Banfield taught many conservative scholars, including James Q. Wilson
James Q. Wilson
James Q. Wilson is an American academic political scientist and an authority on public administration. He is a professor and senior fellow at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College....
and Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective...
. He also taught Christopher DeMuth
Christopher DeMuth
Christopher C. DeMuth is an American lawyer. He was the president of the American Enterprise Institute , a conservative think tank, from 1986 to 2008. DeMuth is widely credited with reviving AEI's fortunes after its near-bankruptcy in 1986 and leading the institute to new levels of influence and...
and Bruce Kovner
Bruce Kovner
Bruce Stanley Kovner is an American businessman. He is the founder and Chairman of Caxton Associates, a hedge fund that trades a global macro strategy and is considered amongst the worlds top and largest 10 hedge funds with an estimated $14 billion under management...
, leading figures at the conservative think-tank, American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1961.
Published works
Copies of many of Edward C. Banfield's books and writings are available at Edward C. Banfield - An Online Resource.- Government Project (1951)
- Politics, Planning, and the Public Interest, with Martin Meyerson (1955)
- The Moral Basis of a Backward Society (1958)
- Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas, with Morton M. Grodzins (1958)
- A Report on the Politics of Boston, with Martha Derthick (1960)
- Political Influence (1961/1982/2003)
- Urban Government: A Reader in Politics and Administration (1961)
- City Politics, with James Q. Wilson (1963)
- American Foreign Aid Doctrines (1963)
- Big City Politics (1965)
- Boston: The Job Ahead, with Martin Meyerson (1966)
- The Unheavenly City (1970)
- The Unheavenly City Revisited: A Revision of The Unheavenly City (1974)
- The Democratic Muse: Visual Arts and the Public Interest (1984)
- Here the People Rule: Selected Essays (1985, reprinted with additional essays in 1991)
External links
- Edward C. Banfield - An Online Resource, contains biographies, bibliographies, recordings of Banfield, and more.
- A Nearly Forgotten Classic Study in Public Administration: Edward C. Banfield's Government Project, Public Administration Review, September/October 2009, vol. 69, issue 5, pp. 993–997.
- Leo Strauss's Farewell Speech on Banfield's Departure from the University of Chicago, 1959
- A former student recalls Banfield.
- Edward C. Banfield's books and writings may be downloaded freely and legally from Edward C. Banfield - An Online Resource.
- Website of Elliot Banfield