Modern Universities, Absent Citizenship? Historical Perspectives

21 Pages·2005·0.6 MB·English

Modern Universities, Absent Citizenship?
Historical Perspectives
William Talcott
Visiting Scholar, University of Maryland
[email protected]
CIRCLE WORKING PAPER 39
SEPTEMBER 2005
CIRCLE Working Paper 39: September 2005 Modern Universities, Absent Citizenship? Historical Perspectives CIRCLE Working Paper 39: September 2005 Modern Universities, Absent Citizenship? Historical Perspectives
The historical study of university campuses and character-building might be described, as they
can tell us much about the changing character were by a Berkeley student in 1892, as “elective
and presuppositions of citizenship. Likewise, the studies.”3
study of citizenship can shed considerable light on Several developments stand out in the
the nature of universities. Throughout American formation of the university model. Following Johns
history, various elite institutions can be seen Hopkins’ lead, institutions emphasizing research
struggling to establish a semblance of order and and science came increasingly to dominate higher
control in political society—most clearly in the late education in the post Civil War U.S. Charles
19th century with large numbers of immigrants Elliot’s elective system instituted at Harvard freed
changing the urban landscape, and with populist undergraduates to pursue their own interests rather
movements threatening elite cultural and political than following a course set by the institution. Land
dominance, but equally in the face of early 20th grant universities emphasized practical training
century phenomena of mass society, propaganda, for farmers, mechanics, miners, engineers, as well
and global interdependence.1 I find it helpful to as primary and secondary school teachers. New,
think of modern universities, emerging in the more private and scientific notions of citizenship
late 19th century, as right there in the struggle, were gradually eclipsing the collegiate emphasis
as new institutional arenas of public practice to on moral character. Ostensibly handing the task
shape new kinds of citizens. From this perspective, of character development to secondary and lower
universities and modern citizenship are intertwined schools, the university became more concerned
in ways mutually complicating and obscuring. With with technical expertise, scientific research and
the aim of untangling some of these connections, professional development.
this review covers a sample of formative texts on One persisting result of this transformation
the broad topic of citizenship and the historical in higher education has been to make discussions
development of modern universities in the United of citizenship with reference to the university
States. sound dated, restrictive, or peripheral. The
My focus is primarily on major research concept pairs easily with 19th century collegiate
universities, with the rationale that these have had traditions, but not with modern universities. For
disproportionate cultural and institutional influence some, the idea of citizenship carries connotations
over the development of higher education as a of moralizing authority, of being disciplined to fit
whole. The university model of higher education in a good citizen mold, of sitting quietly and raising
the U.S. is often distinguished as having stemmed one’s hand before speaking, and so on. President
from German traditions emphasizing specialization Robert Hutchins at the University of Chicago, for
and research, as opposed to the 19th century example, in 1933 asserted in no uncertain terms
collegiate model deriving from British traditions of that “‘education for citizenship’ has no place in
training the whole person. This distinction between the university.” (Ironically, the same Hutchins who
colleges and universities greatly oversimplifies their later defined liberal education as most simply “the
institutional histories, but points to the general education that every citizen ought to have.”)4
direction of change in the latter 1800s toward Note, however, the symbolic contrasts
research, graduate study, and specialization. between community and society, integration and
Nineteenth century colleges clearly saw education fragmentation, embedded in the simplified history
for moral character, “mental and moral discipline,” of transformation above. Either pole in these
as one of their main objects. A student’s training, contrasts can hold a positive or negative valence
for example, was typically capped by a yearlong depending upon one’s framework for understanding
mandatory seminar in ethics taught by the college political society, and one’s assessment of the
president—who was, most likely, an ordained current state of society. The college/community/
minister.2 But modern research universities were integration link, for example, might connote anti-
a different sort of institution, one in which religion democratic, stifling conformity, as easily as it might
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suggest an antidote to a dysfunctional, fragmented practice as one of its central themes, the report
society. These valences come up frequently in was important in setting the terms of discussion
historical and sociological writing on universities, of American higher education through the 1960s.7
and, more to the point, play an important ongoing The committee clearly articulated a model of public
role in directing and legitimating choices within practice that framed good citizenship as a matter of
the institution. For example, Hutchins’ 1933 free individuals making informed, rational choices,
argument that the true aim of the university was individuals voluntarily forming a “free society”
“the advancement of knowledge,” was situated in a through mutual obligation. Universities were one
particular reading of the state of American political of the vehicles, and one of the expressions, of this
society which emphasized a need for intelligent model of practice—chiefly, though not exclusively,
direction, not conformity or unity.5 through the universities’ scientific leanings.
In contrast to their collegiate predecessors, Science, with its characteristic practice of forming
the modern universities’ relationship to citizenship “objective, disinterested judgments based upon
was (is) less evident, more puzzling, and perhaps exact evidence,” was singled out by the authors for
more contentious. I say perhaps because the its “particular value in the formation of citizens for
character of appropriate instruction was often a a free society.”8
heated issue in colleges, as well, with contention The Harvard committee’s aim to develop a
typically centering on religious matters.6 However, model of democratic citizenship, and the manner
my research on the development of modern higher in which it addressed the topic, can in part be
education in the U.S. has led me to the view that attributed to the historical moment in which it
citizenship was and is just as important to the was written: in 1945, global concepts such as that
university as it was to the older college model. The of a “common fate” for humanity, and the threat
important difference is that citizenship here took on of totalitarianism, were immediate and tangible.
new meanings and adopted new practices. However, the cultural parameters of the “red
The question of education for citizenship book” (as the book became known for the color
has recently seen revived interest, with several of its cover) were already being circulated and
volumes and many more articles dedicated to the enacted early in the emergence of the American
topic. This literature rarely refers to citizenship university. In a sense, the Harvard committee’s
as a cultural influence already embedded in, report symbolizes the culmination of political
and actively shaping, higher education. This is and educational reform movements dating to the
a problem because models of the public sphere late 19th century. The result of these movements
and citizenship have long shaped universities embracing science as a model of democratic polity
and colleges. In effect, the institution “thinks” was the eventual dominance—especially in research
of its mission(s) in terms of received patterns of universities—of a modernist model of citizenship.
citizenship. Proposals for change are more likely One of the ironies of modernist citizenship
to be effective if they acknowledge and respond to is that it tends to inhibit discussion of substantive
these models. moral aspects of public life. As a model
The single most influential model of the emphasizing rational choice and non-coercive
university/citizenship relationship in the 20th discussion among equals, citizenship is cast
century, what I call the modernist model, emerged primarily as a matter of procedure or method. A
in the late 19th century and eventually culminated modernist institution can thus speak volubly about
in the influential 1945 publication, General promoting independent, critical inquiry, and is
Education in a Free Society. Written by a Harvard amply stocked with critical skills to detect any
committee of twelve, General Education surveyed suggestion of interference with independent inquiry,
the cultural and educational elements necessary free speech, or any distortions in communication.
for a modern democratic society. With the The notion of citizenship itself, however, becomes
relationship between higher education and public problematic here insofar as it suggests an
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element of loyalty or obligation to particular could it have fit within any one of the three: a
values, traditions, or groups. Modernist citizenship university’s relationship to the public sphere cuts
emphasized individual rational choice, as opposed across and can almost be said to encompass these
to the highly partisan, physical and occasionally categories. However, if citizenship cannot be easily
spectacular form of citizenship characteristic of late slotted into Veysey’s framework, it nevertheless
19th century electoral politics.9 shows up in various guises throughout the book.
The shift in the meaning and practice of In fact, The Emergence of the American University
citizenship around the turn of the 19th century implicitly highlights the extent to which each of
gradually gave the term “citizenship” a connotation the three aims was saturated with notions of
of being somewhat outdated. By the 1930s, an citizenship. The concept of utility, for example,
ambitious academic leader could reasonably incorporated the idea of serving public interests
dismiss citizenship as something contrary to the through professional training. Research was widely
spirit of a university, even though universities had associated with moral progress and the cultivation
worked very hard over the past several decades to of civility. And among advocates of liberal culture
institutionalize new, modern forms of citizenship. “the temptation remained overpowering to identify
This historic shift toward modernist citizenship oneself with an ideal America, however great
helps to explain why few historical studies of higher the discrepancy between it and the uncivilized
education place citizenship anywhere near the reality.” Thus scholars “usually persevered in
center of the institution: universities had distanced seeking national uplift, even if by non-political
themselves from older models of citizenship. But means.”11 And so on. As Veysey describes it, the
the university’s newly formed relationship to the emerging university was very much situated within
realm of modern public practice has frequently constructions of political society. The key is to
been overlooked, disavowed, or unrecognized by look closely at what was taught about citizenship
university members. through these “non-political means”
Among the major historical studies of Veysey saw the modern university as a
higher education written since 1960, Laurence bureaucratic shell, and emphasized institutional
Veysey’s exhaustive and influential study, The elements of conservatism and conformity as
Emergence of the American University, merits they worked against the possibility of critical,
a close look. Veysey argues that by 1890 the autonomous citizenship. The prevailing trend he
modern university had consolidated around identified in modern higher education was toward
three aims: utility, research, and liberal culture. accommodation with non-academic demands in
Veysey points out that educators throughout American society, such as by acting as an agent
the Progressive Era used the terms ‘democracy,’ for individual success through technical skill
‘public service,’ and ‘public uplift’ liberally to training. The aim of utility for democracy, for
describe the purpose of the institution. However, example, had by the end of the progressive period
he concludes that these appeals to democracy “silently evaporated as an ideal, leaving bare a
had little specificity and eventually became cheap large institutional structure that functioned as its
coinage, with no significant impact on the structure own end.”12 The institution succeeded in creating
of the institution.10 Sorting out the various uses and protecting specialized departments, but the
of “democracy” by educators, Veysey finds six result was hardly democratic: “If the spirit of
different meanings linked only by a shared appeal scientific investigation had any intrinsic effect upon
to “the maintenance of a high standard of individual the public role of the university, it was anything
morality.” None directly related to citizenship as but subversive, for it led either toward apathy
public participation. or toward a form of conservatism.” The problem
Citizenship clearly would not have worked was that the habit of flexible thought associated
as a fourth category alongside Veysey’s three part with scientific pursuit “was bound to promote an
model of utility, research, and liberal culture, nor acceptance of nature as it was, hence of man, as
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part of nature, as he was.”13 While early educators transformation put higher education at the center
and scientists thought they were acting as a of a new, more vertical organization of American
progressive force, contributing to a model public, society dividing people according to “merit” rather
they were actually reproducing the status quo. than locality.
According to the model of public practice Veysey Emergence describes the transformation as
employs, the quality of citizenship in the early unfolding in necessary steps: in “highly organized
20th century university fell short, as it lacked an societies with a very specialized division of labor,”
element of moral-critical engagement. the rule of merit “seems to us an inevitable
The critical lens Veysey employed in feature.” Meritocracy in turn “brings with it” what
The Emergence of the American University was Jencks and Riesman describe as “the national
common, but not new or specific, to social thought upper-middle class style: cosmopolitan, moderate,
of the 1960s and later: this was a model of public universalistic, somewhat legalistic, concerned with
practice in which good citizenship requires a equity and fair play, aspiring to neutrality between
coherent moral-critical vision to retain a quality regions, religions, and ethnic groups.” Change in
of independence or freedom. Applied to the American society was “inevitably” accompanied
university, the argument was that vague definition by change in higher education.15 Merit needed
of institutional purpose, and the flexible outlook of standardized, reproducible scales in order to be
scientific thought, allowed business-like practices recognized and distributed, making objective,
to “infiltrate” or “penetrate” the institution. Higher scientific method the dominant organizing principle
education over the course of the Progressive years in higher education at the expense of subjective
lost institutional coherence, and increasingly served knowledge. The end of this logical chain, beginning
needs defined outside of the institution—and hence with the demands of “highly organized societies,”
did not have the quality of an independent public is a form of self-denial: an institutional “quest for
actor. Veysey pushes the criticism only so far: by impersonality.” Predominant research methods
the early 20th century, educators “ran the danger” “go a long way toward determining the character
of “accepting the dominant codes of action” of of the academician himself…” A graduate student
business, but the infiltration was incomplete and tends to become “a passive instrument ‘used’ by
to some extent necessary. The institution could his methods and his disciplinary colleagues.”16
not run without financial support, and at major Supposedly neutral means unwittingly shaped
universities it was rare to find a case where institutional ends.
business was “made to stand for the whole” of the It is unclear, again, if universities have some
institution.14 status as independent institutions—if, in effect,
There are revealing similarities between they are citizens— or if they are subjects to a
Veysey’s The Emergence of the American University deeper systemic logic such as a specialized division
and a study published three years later by of labor. The exclusive push for objectivity, for
Christopher Jencks and David Riesman, Academic example, works counter to public participation and
Revolution. At the heart of both works is a deep against independent citizenship, with faculty “hiding
ambivalence about the character of public practice behind evidence” and afraid to “stick their necks
in modern universities; if this is public theater, it out.” The academic revolution seems to take place
is a rote, mechanical performance. In Jencks and in passive voice, without actors or action. It is clear
Riesman’s account it is unclear whether universities that Jencks and Riesman would have it otherwise:
in the “academic revolution” were among the they end the book with a call for greater freedom
agents of social change, or the products of social and variety, arguing that the institution ought to
change. At times they portray modern universities link objectivity and subjective experience as “two
as the result of inexorable late 19th century societal modes of knowing.”17 Such an institution would
forces, chiefly having to do with the emergence recognize virtues other than skepticism and clarity
of national institutions in the U.S. This social of thought, virtues including “tact, practicality,
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social inventiveness—and even faith, hope, and of relations between members. To Veysey the
charity.”18 university had the appearance of a shell, a
It does not take too much of a stretch to see structure that “functioned as its own end”; Jencks
a rough model of citizenship education in this list and Riesman at times refer to the institution in
of virtues (republican?) undervalued by research terms of impersonal “machinery.” In both cases
universities. Jencks and Riesman’s study remains university practices were not seen as serving
one of the more insightful accounts of the origins public ideals, ends other than the institutions own
and character of what I refer to as the modernist functioning.
model of citizenship embedded in modern higher I read the theme of citizenship-absence in
education. As with Veysey, they tend not to see these two influential books as, in part, a critical
this dominant strand of institutional culture as strategy aimed at transforming the authors’
modeling—however inadequately—citizenship contemporary institutions. In retrospect, it is hard
practice. not to read the books in the context of mid-1960s
The depiction of modern universities as a- calls for institutional change. Both argue for a
public, as public absence, is in part a limitation of renewal of citizenship cultures on campus. But I
method: Veysey’s discussion of democracy does not have to wonder, if the history of modern education
look beyond the writings of leading educators, and had simply been a move away from citizenship,
tacitly assumes that where the word “citizenship” where did the authors’ own critical orientations
was not used, there were no concerns relevant come from? What made it seem appropriate for
to citizenship. Jencks and Riesman use a form of these university members to criticize the modern
modernization theory which gives their writing a university in terms of citizenship?
deductive and a-historical tone. The early research More recent studies have elaborated
university might have looked different in both and sharpened the view of the emergence of
books if, for example, it had been situated in the modern universities in the U.S. as a negative
context of turn of the century political reform turning point and target for criticism of public
movements. By “reasoning backwards,” instead of practice.19 Thomas Bender places the origins of
studying the historical production of the institution, this transformation in the late 19th century, while
Jencks and Riesman do not see that some others point to the interwar years as critical. In
aspects of “meritocratic” values were promoted “The Erosion of Public Culture” Bender writes of
and consciously identified by reform movements late 19th century academic professionalization
and Progressive educators in an attempt to push as a withdrawal of intellectuals from disorderly
cultures of citizenship away from the reigning spirit urban centers to the university as an “intellectual
and style of partisan politics. Universities did not refuge.” The long-term result of this process, he
just serve other powerful institutions; rather, the concludes, was “an impoverished public culture and
turn of the century university movement made a little means for critical discussion of general ideas,
claim on the nature of national public institutions. as opposed to scientific or scholarly expertise.”20
The absence of citizenship as a theme in Burton Bledstein, in his important study The
both books may also be a consequence of their Culture of Professionalism, wrote that by 1900
particular approach to the concept: by the mid- higher education had “segregated ideas from
1960s, some aspects of the institution were not the public”; universities contained controversial
recognized as modeling public practice. Or, stated issues within the institution and “reduced them to
differently, by the mid-1960s, Progressive-era scientific and technical terms.”21 Derek Bok writes
cultures of citizenship in the institution did not that the low point came by the end of the interwar
respond to progressive critical concerns. This was period, when “institutions of learning had not only
especially so for scientific research—which both ceased to be actively engaged in moral and civic
books depict as a kind of conservative force— but education; they had lost their former status as an
also, more abstractly, in the institution’s structuring important source of moral guidance for the society.”
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In Bok’s account, the university embraced “intellect occurring, it was thought to be a problem primarily
and technical proficiency,” not moral education.22 by conservative religious and nationalist critics of
Robert Bellah, et al., in The Good Society, argue the university, who correctly saw that modernist
that the early 20th century university, “rather than universities had the potential to plant critical seeds
interpreting and integrating the larger society, of doubt in the minds of American students.25
came more and more to mirror it.”23 Benjamin University members at all levels of the
Barber agrees, “by the end of World War II, institution frequently make comparisons and
higher education had begun to professionalize, contrasts—implicit or explicit—between the campus
vocationalize, and specialize in a manner that and the world beyond. These contrasts help to
occluded its civic and democratic mission.”24 The construct a distinctive institutional identity and
direction of critical interpretation, again, is similar help to guide institutional directions and practices.
to Veysey’s. Some measure of the causal force Reuben
Among more recent works, Julie Reuben’s attributes to the shape of the research university,
The Making of the Modern University (1995) in other words, may be better understood in
stands out as an important contribution to the reference to broader societal changes. Considering
study of citizenship and higher education—though the transformations Reuben describes in such
its primary target is morality, and not citizenship broader context, I think that Making of the Modern
per se. Reuben traces the changing status of University tracks the gradual dominance of a
science and moral discourse on campuses over particular model of citizenship in higher education,
a sixty-year period, from 1870 to 1930. Most of not the gradual demise of citizenship per se.
these changes have direct bearing on forms of Reuben’s study vividly illustrates how this model
citizenship education. Readers will be surprised of citizenship constrained the university’s ability
to learn of the extent of change: at one point, for to address moral and civic issues; we hear less,
example, universities embraced hygiene instruction however, about the specific citizenship practices
as a crucial aspect of moral education (158). and capacities this model enabled. And these are
The Making of the Modern University emphasizes not insignificant.
the consequences—often unintended—of early Several studies focusing on specific
institutional reforms such as the introduction of disciplines rather than the institution as a
electives. As with Jencks and Reisman, the end whole similarly identify a shift of emphasis from
result of this chain of consequences is a form of “moralism and reform” to “objectivity and science”
absence, in this case, a relative absence of moral in the period roughly between 1880 through the
education in the Academy. Reuben’s argument is interwar years.26 Edward Purcell, for example,
based on a careful, and highly rewarding, study writes that gradually in the early 20th century
of the writings and institutional choices made by “methodology replaced moralism in the minds of
university leaders and faculty between 1870 and many younger reformers and social scientists,
1930. Reuben persuasively ascribes changing views and the instrument of social research came to
of morality and science to changes in institutional overwhelm the goal of social reform.” Of course,
practice. as Purcell notes, many felt that social research and
I would like to see the relevant institutional scientific advance indirectly furthered the goal of
context expanded, however, to include socio- social reform, and this belief, “rationalized in the
political patterns beyond the university. Political minds of most the divorce between social science
context, and contemporaries’ perceptions of and the problems of political morality.”27 And
political society, rarely enters into Reuben’s Bruce Kuklick’s The Rise of American Philosophy,
analysis. Without this context it is difficult to for example, traces changes in the character of
see the institutional separation of morality and philosophizing at Harvard University from 1860 to
science as anything but a loss. During the decades 1930. With professionalization, philosophy insulated
in which the marginalization of morality was itself to the point where society “ceased to be a
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direct influence in shaping philosophical ideas.”28 in the late 1950s the tone of scholarship on the
A possible implication of this line of professions and universities was increasingly one of
criticism is that higher education in the mid to disillusionment. Where previous, more functionalist
late 19th century—prior to the modern research studies emphasized the “validity and utility” of
university—in some respects did a better job of professions to the public welfare, the new wave of
citizenship education than what followed. And, scholarship tended to read professional institutions
aside from glaring exclusions based on gender, as systems of domination artificially grounded in
race, and religion, some critics do see in this earlier scientific expertise.32 In this framework, treatments
period a more integral and coherent moral vision, of modern higher education selectively highlight
stronger connections between individual members systems of social status, class reproduction, or
and the shared life and aims of the institution, institutional co-optation by market interests. Magali
and a sense of integration between the scientific Larson’s influential study of professionalism, for
search for knowledge and the construction of a example, described the central role of universities
good society.29 This reading meshes with a trend in establishing professional organizations and
in studies of mid 19th century American civic life, authority, and argued that “...the dominant, and
which, again, finds admirable qualities, particularly almost the unique, meaning of these professional
for the high levels of participation and deliberation movements was the conquest and assertion of
it fostered. Neil Postman, for example, chose the social status.”33 Kimball focuses on American
1850s Lincoln-Douglas debates as a model of scholarship, but the more critical direction in
deliberation and a positive counter-example to late studies of the professions was not specific to the
20th century television sound-bite politics. Michael U.S.: for example, Discipline and Punish: The Birth
McGerr in The Decline of Popular Politics, and of the Prison, by Michel Foucault (published 1975,
Robert Wiebe in his cultural history of American with English translation in 1977), stands out for its
democracy, Self-Rule, agree that the 19th century harsh reading of modern institutions.34
did a better job of connecting citizens—white male Kimball argues that the trend toward
voters—with political processes.30 disillusionment regarding the professions can
Explaining this transformation from be explained by a form of presentism rooted
relatively positive mid-to-late 19th century civic in a gradual decline in the social status of
life to negative modern institutions has been the professoriate over the course of the 20th
a common historiographic and sociological century.35 However, I find it implausible that
task since the late 1950s. When applied to the several decades of critical scholarship can be
university, two common explanations focus on the characterized by what he calls “sour grapes.”
growth of bureaucratic administration, and the Elsewhere in the book Kimball suggests a path
growing influence of professionalization as faculty to a more convincing explanation. To explain
oriented themselves toward methodology and the growing appeal of science as a cultural
professional networks rather than local universities ideal in the late nineteenth century, he cites the
and communities.31 Of course, Progressive Era importance of political context—including the
educators for the most part had very different Civil War, national expansionism culminating in
views about the emerging modern university the Spanish-American War, political corruption,
and its relationship to public practice, as did, disillusionment with electoral processes and the
for example, the authors of the 1945 General judiciary—in contributing to a loss of faith in
Education in a Free Society. existing political processes. Kimball concludes that
Bruce Kimball, in The “True Professional the “increasing complexity of society,” coupled
Ideal” in America, gives a valuable account with disillusionment with the status quo in politics,
of the shift in scholarship evident in the leap made science an appealing alternative to the
from General Education in a Free Society to the cultural ideal of polity.36 Unfortunately, polity and
Academic Revolution. Kimball notes that beginning political context seem also to drop out at this
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point in Kimball’s analysis. Instead of attributing of dysfunctional institutions. One strand of social
the late 20th century turn in social thought solely thought looked to classical republican traditions as
to the change in professorial status, for example, a critical benchmark—a measure of how far modern
Kimball could again have referred to context: the political society had fallen from or failed to realize
civil rights movement and heightened awareness democratic ideals— and as an alternative to liberal
of racism, student movements, multiple political models of modern political society. Interestingly,
assassinations, war in Vietnam, the Cuban missile the more recent wave(s) of public criticism have
crisis and nuclear arms proliferation, and assorted come from both the right and left, as dissatisfaction
political scandal. Events testing faith in existing with the state of citizenship on campus seems to be
institutions. shared across the political spectrum.
The shift in Kimball’s explanatory Joyce Appleby credits Bernard Bailyn
framework, in which political context plays a key and Gordon Wood’s mid-1960s studies of early
role for the late 19th century, and yet disappear American politics as playing a key role in the
for the late 20th century, provides a clue to recent recovery of republican political/cultural traditions.37
scholarship on modern higher education. Part of Robert Bellah’s Civil Religion in America was
the problem may be that The “True Professional published at the same time, setting the grounds
Ideal describes the late nineteenth century leap for a series of influential works on modern political
from polity to science a bit too sharply. The shift culture.38 As Appleby notes, the recovery of the
is better read as one toward a scientific polity as classical republican tradition was important both
a cultural ideal, with polity not quite dropping out for re-introducing a critical model for democratic
of the equation. This is an important distinction: politics, and for pushing social-political thought
scientific practice, and more generally, university away from naturalized liberal categories and toward
practice as it was associated with a cultural ideal an anthropological emphasis on culture.39 The
of science, carried an ongoing symbolic reference intellectual movement was, again, in some respects
to polity. University members well into the 20th international— Habermas’ The Transformation of
century understood that their actions had an the Public Sphere, for example, was first published
element, in other words, of public performance. in 1962, though little read in the U.S. until its
This again helps provide a more plausible reading English translation in 1989.40 Several important
of late 20th century disillusionment as in part due to works published in the mid-1970s referred to
the perception that the modern university was not republican concepts of political society: Richard
meeting its obligations to polity. Sennett’s The Fall of Public Man in 1974, followed
My suggestion here is that contemporary in 1975 by The Machiavellian Moment by J.G.
representations of modern university history Pocock, and Robert Bellah’s The Broken Covenant:
are, in part, products of late 20th/early 21st American Civil Religion in a Time of Trial, each
century critical perspectives on the public sphere. taking very different approaches to the study of
This is a different kind of presentism than that cultures of public practice. 41 In a sense, the central
described by Kimball. Loosely connected public themes of 1920s debate between Lippman and
reform movements in the late 20th century came Dewey over the state of American political society
in roughly two waves: one in response to 60s had again come to the fore in various academic
era upheavals and producing volumes of critical circles.
writing on the state of the university, and the other Scholarship revolving around the related
gaining momentum in the last two decades of the concepts of the public, citizenship, and civil
century. The early phase saw sustained critiques society, in the past two decades has been marked
of objectivism and its association with a military- by several events, including: the attention given
industrial complex, war in Vietnam, gender and to the work of Bellah, et al. in The Habits of the
racial discrimination. The concept of democratic Heart, the “liberal versus communitarian” debates
public practice gained renewed attention in the face including writings by Michael Sandel and Charles
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CIRCLE Working Paper 39: September 2005 Modern Universities, Absent Citizenship? Historical Perspectives CIRCLE Working Paper 39: September 2005 Modern Universities, Absent Citizenship? Historical Perspectives
Taylor, Russell Jacoby followed by Cornell West example, levels of diversity and inclusion have of
and others on the decline of “public intellectuals,” course been a critical focus in recent decades, such
the Bowling Alone critique of American public as in multicultural and feminist critiques of the
life by Robert Putnam, interest in the cultural public sphere. As for the character of participation,
and institutional bases of democracy spurred a range of critics survey public participation for its
by the newly independent Eastern European quality of informed and reasoned deliberation, such
states, and the flurry of scholarship surrounding as in works by Neil Postman, Jurgen Habermas
the English translation of Jurgen Habermas’ The and mass media criticism. I would also include in
Transformation of the Public Sphere.42 Benjamin this category arguments about the quality of civic
Barber’s Jihad vs. McWorld, for example, employed and moral reasoning in institutions, for example
a Habermas-inspired approach to globalization. in works by Alan Wolfe, Robert Bellah et al., Phillip
And Theda Skocpol, Michael Schudson and Selznick, Julie Reuben, George Marsden, and
others have published important research in Martha Nussbaum.43 The third cluster of criticism
the historical sociology of civic practices. Taken looks at levels of participation in public life, such
together, the multiple, conflicting discussions on as in Robert Putnam’s work on civic traditions in
the public sphere in this partial list can be seen as Italy, and his research on declining levels of civic
part of ongoing reformist and counter-reformist participation in the U.S.44 Critics and politicians
movements. often favor or trade some dimensions over others,
I mention this strand of civic-oriented depending upon context and viewpoint. Robert
literature because it reflects a period of unusual Wiebe, for example, argues in Self-Rule that
ferment and questioning in higher education democracy is basically about open participation, a
about the nature of citizenship. These works have mix of the first and third categories.45 Modernist
shaped intellectual (and to some extent popular) citizenship put greater emphasis on the character
perceptions of the public sphere, and have helped of participation, with mixed consequences for
to shape the terms of discussion about citizenship diversity and depth of participation.
in higher education. With few exceptions, when As we have seen, public (re)construction
critics within this public-reform movement have criticism tends to read modern institutions,
looked back on the history of the university they including higher education, in terms of a public
have not seen the aspects of citizenship they negation or absence, falling short in diversity,
expect or want to see, and come away describing deliberation, and participation. The research
an absence of citizenship. This stance has critical university that emerged from the Progressive
rhetorical utility in prodding institutional change, Era figures as a highly exclusive realm isolated
but it overlooks the powerful existing currents of from public concerns, marginalizing moral and
citizenship in higher education. These currents may civic inquiry in favor of narrow procedures and
be different from what critics expect of citizenship, professional ends, and fragmenting interaction
and may be expressed in unfamiliar cultural between its members. This is somewhat ironic
vocabularies, but they are nevertheless influential because the vision of an inclusive, rational-
forms of citizenship. deliberative (with various understandings of what
Scholarship on citizenship—in higher this entails), and participatory public draws from
education and elsewhere—tends to cluster around modernist models of citizenship, also emerging in
different analytical dimensions of the concept, the Progressive Era. The modernist model framed
dimensions associated with criteria for democracy. I good citizenship as a matter of free individuals
see these as grouping into roughly three categories making rational, informed choices, individuals
having to do with the inclusivity, character, and voluntarily forming a “free society” through
depth of public participation. Though the three mutual obligation. This was a style of citizenship
clearly overlap, there are fairly distinct bodies reflecting what was widely thought to be an image
of criticism associated with each dimension. For of scientific practice. Modern institutions such as
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