Conflicts, gaps, discrepancies in political values

Title

Creator

Mantor, Agnes P.

Language

English

Year

1969

Subject

Philippines -- Politics and government.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

From The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, Winter 1969.

Fulltext

CONFLICTS, GAPS, DISCREPANCIES IN POLITICAL VALUES The political values of a people are based upon and directly related to the moral, personal, and social values which they have accepted. Gaps, discrepancies, and con flicts between the ideas and ideals we profess in political values and those we prac tice certainly exist today. As we read history, we may feel that they have to some degree always existed. In these days the space between professing and prac tising has increased with the changes time has brought, with the greatly increased size of the country, with the growth of population and of city masses, with the very fact of bigness in all its as pects (business, transporta tion, education, etc.), chal lenging old value patterns and practices. If we could set goals and make some progress in deve loping patterns of political behavior based on sound personal, moral, and social values, we might help in no small way to strengthen the nation. Cynics may say this is impractical idealism; yet Horace Mann’s battle for public education, the educa tion of all the children of all the people, was based on principle, and the battle was fought and won. To imple ment that principle in an unsettled and changing world, with all the implica tions of change, is a task which cannot be ignored if democracy is to survive. Let us examine some of the present discrepancies between political values we profess and those we prac tice. If questioned, we would all say we value our citizen ship, I am sure. We are thankful we are not living in Czechoslovakia. Yet fi gures show that many citi zens do not exercise the baMahch 1969 21 sic right, privilege, and res ponsibility of that citizen ship. Too many citizens do not vote. How many non-voters would give us their reason disgust with politics? Do they realize that imperfect as it seems, our system of poli tics has become the method of operating the government in our democracy? Do they know that the Founding Fa thers planned, not the de mocracy of Lincoln’s "gov ernment of the people, by the people, and for the peo ple” but a representative form of government, in which selected representatives exercised certain powers? The electoral college elected the president (individual members free to vote for can didates as they chose), state legislatures elected U.S. Sen ators, etc. If you say the average voter does not know these things, then I say to you that the public school should have taught him. As our concept of government has changed, our political system has evolved. In many ways that system is out of gear, retaining old procedures un suited to changing times The election of the Presideni by the electoral college and the complicated procedures that might follow illustrate the point. The election oi 1968 focused public attention on this situation. Newspa pers and magazines through editorials, articles, and syn dicated columns have called for action to bring this elec tion machinery up to date. At this writing comes the first announcement of plans for Congressional action on the matter. Once action is begun, will the people con cerned, professing as their goal the good of the coun try, support procedures be nefiting certain groups — po litical, sectional, economic, or whatever they may be? Will the average citizen, profes sing to value his citizenship, follow the work of the Con gressional group and exert any influence he may have for the best system? Will whatever compromises have to be made result in the general good? If we value honesty in government, we will prac tice it. Gaps in the politi cal field exist wherever there 22 Panorama is misuse of public funds, padding of accounts, undue influence of powerful lob bies, and graft. Whenever there gets to be a general acceptance of these practices, or apathy concerning them, there is certainly a discrepan cy between ideals professed and actions practiced. Our political system makes it easy to practice dishonesty in words, too often illustrated in campaign oratory, malign ing political opponents, and campaign literature and slo gans. There is certainly a con flict, also, between the idea of political power held as a public trust and the practice of its use for private gain. To what extent can we ac cept pork barrel tactics, ne potism, rewards and offices given for services rendered, waste of public money through the hiring of sur plus employees, or unintel ligent or uneconomical use of government funds, proce dures too often practiced by the government but not to lerated by private industry? To what extent can we ac cept these practices and feel that the values thus exempli fied are acceptable practices in carrying on the govern ment of our country? Preservation of the twoparty system to avoid the disastrous effects of the splin tering of parties — as hap pened in France, making no party truly effective — will be a problem of the next few years. Attitudes regard ing natural resources — land, water, air — and a fiscal po licy for our country become matters of party policy. Ma ny of these issues are com plicated and complex. In a democracy, citizens should be more than blind, uninformed adherents to a party. As Dr. John J. Ma honey, long a professor in Boston University’s School of Education, has said: The vote ought to be an intel ligent vote, the sober expres sion of a people’s judgment concerning candidates and issues. After looking at spe cific values in our political life, and the discrepancies and conflicts between our profession of values and our behavior, we see the great need for public officials whom the public can trust. Let us hope there will be no March 1969 23 great discrepancies here, al though history is not always reassuring. As time passes, how will our democracy stand the strains within the country and the tremendous chal lenge of world problems that face us? It would seem than an increasingly informed and alert electorate, choosing the leadership of men and wo men of character, however idealistic this may seem, must be the trend if democracy as we know it is to survive. — by Agnes P. Mantor in The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulle tin, Winter 1969. UNIVERSITY CONSTITUENTS Alumni: In this country that strange pheno menon known as the alumni plays a weird and oftentimes a terrifying role. It is very odd, when you come to think of it, that people who have been the beneficiaries of an institution should think that they should control it, and for that very reason. Trustees are in a different category from alum ni. They at least have the undoubted legal right to control the institution. ♦ • ♦ But a university that is run by its trustees will be badly run. How can it be otherwise? Ordinarily the trustees are not educators: usually they are non-resident. If they are alumni, they must overcome the vices in herent in that interesting group. If of their own motion they take an education problem in hand, they can decide rightly only by accident. • ♦ • Academic Freedom is simply a way of saying that we get the best results in education and re search if we leave their management to people who know something about them. — Robert Maynard Hutchins, former President of the University of Chicago, in The Higher Learning in America. 24 Panorama

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