Prof discusses academics, politics

Academics can have a powerful impact on politics, Harvard University Professor and former Clinton administration official Mary Jo Bane said Friday in a lecture sponsored by the Sociology Department. Bane -- now a public policy professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government -- served as assistant secretary of Health and Human Services for Children and Family from 1993 to 1996, when she resigned to protest the president's signing of the welfare reform bill. In Friday's address -- entitled "Expertise, Advocacy and Deliberation: Lessons from Welfare Reform" -- Bane denounced the controversial welfare reform law, which converted much of welfare to "workfare" and passed responsibility for program administration to state and local governments. "I believe and will continue to believe that it is an abandonment of our duty to poor children," she said. Drawing from her more recent experiences as a professor, Bane focused much of her speech on the flawed roles academics often play in shaping national policy. She said that a central problem occurs when, in debating a national issue, both political parties solicit their own academic experts, thus devaluing any expert testimony. "Research and information come into that debate by people who play the role of dueling experts," she said. In order for academics to be effective advocates, they "must learn how to do politics and be effective in their testimony," she added. To help alleviate the contentious environment of partisan politics, Bane recommended more discussion of public-policy issues. "The notion is to have deliberation which can help us gain understanding of shared values and shared fact," she said. "What we ought to do with the different values represented is compromise." Bane's speech, which attracted a crowd of more than 75 students and faculty to the McNeil Building, was the first in a new lecture series sponsored by Sociology Department. The Beth and Richard Sackler Lectures will feature "a prominent intellectual who has high qualifications in the social sciences and at the same time is engaged in important public policy issues," said Sociology Department Chairperson Douglas Massey, who also directs the series. After sustained applause, Bane took questions from the audience on a wide range of topics, including what role she believed academics should play in state and local governments. College freshman Stephanie Jones called Bane's presentation "effective."

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