Politics Under the Constrained Vision

Philip Wallach tonight on Zoom

Tonight at 8 PM New York time, I will discuss political theory with Philip Wallach, author of the recently published Why Congress? The link is at the end of this post, for paid subscribers.

I see Wallach as describing what Congress should be like under what Thomas Sowell calls the “constrained vision.” Sowell has articulated this in several places, most notably A Conflict of Visions.

In the unconstrained vision, society can be perfected, and politics is the means for achieving that perfection. The unconstrained vision becomes one in which “our” side is absolutely right about how to arrange society, and the other side is absolutely evil for opposing us.

In the constrained vision, society can never be perfected. Humans are too fallible, with a propensity for conflict and status competition that is indelible. Under the constrained vision, the goal of politics is to ensure that disputes are resolved peacefully. Negotiation and compromise are better than some ultimate victory. As Winston Churchill is credited with saying, jaw-jaw is better than war-war.

Congress is supposed to be the body that arrives at peaceful resolution of political conflicts. But we don’t see that happening nowadays. Negotiation and compromise becomes unacceptable to each party’s base, so that conflict over immigration policy is left to fester indefinitely. Some of the most bitter cultural disputes, over abortion or gay marriage, end up in the Supreme Court.

Can Congress get back to playing its intended role as the arena for hashing out political disagreements? Tonight, we can ask Wallach how that might happen.

link for Zoom discussion with Philip Wallach: