Bertrand de Jouvenel: A Remembrance Author(s): Dennis Hale Source: PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 21, No.

3 (Summer, 1988), pp. 652-657 Published by: American Political Science Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/419745 . Accessed: 24/03/2011 13:49
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spend two monthsin France,and since studentat Careyhad been de Jouvenel's whende Jouvenel was a Visiting Berkeley Professor there, why not take a letterof introduction andget anActivist article from one of Europe'smost famous political scientists? So, letter in hand,and insufferably selfconfident,I embarkedon my journey aboard the S.S. Aurelia-a converted Italian submarine tenderstuffed withcollegestudentsbound for Europe. On the thirdday out, when I could once againlook at a printedpage withoutbecomingill, I lay down on my bunk threefloorsbelowthe waterline andopenedOnPower: ItsNature andthe History de Jouvenel's of ItsGrowth, firstmajor workof socialtheory. Seventeenyearslater,whenIfinally did meet de Jouvenel, he observedthat On Power"is an overly complicated book, don't you think?" At the time, though,I couldscarcelythinkat all: my self-confidencewas longgone,andIwas paralyzed by the thoughtof meetingthis manand DENNISHALE to conductan intelligent conversatrying tion with him, in French (so I supposed), about a book I couldnot understand. (I thisin French-"Je imagined myself saying ne comprehend pas votre livre"-but it Bertrand de Jouvenel: soundedprettylame.) A Remembrance OnPower seemedto be anexplanation of entirehistory of the West, everything-the DennisHale from the dawn of civilization to the BostonCollege Second WorldWar,andbythe endof the firstchapterI was utterlyoverwhelmed. As the days went by, though,I plowed Bertrand de Jouvenel, who died a year ahead,filling the margins of OnPower with at the age of 83, is best exclamation ago this March, points and questionmarks,, knownto American scientists for underlining one-half of the political approximately threebooks-On Power a mounting as (1945),Sovereignty text, andexperiencing panic carried me to the Old World (1957), and The Pure Theory of Politics the Aurelia withshame. (1963)-and severalessays,amongthem andto my rendezvous "The Chairman's Problem"and "The Theboatdocked,andItookthe train to Natureof Political Science." Paris, putting out of mind, for the Ialmost met Bertrand de Jouvenel inthe moment, the fearful duty ahead. For summer of 1964,whenIwas 20 yearsold, severaldays I did nothing but walk,eat, a political sciencemajorat OberlinCol- and sleep, divertedby the charmof the lege, andthe editorof a studentpolitical city.OnPower layon the bedsidetablein calledTheActivist. I was also a my hotel room, unopened magazine and reproachstudentof WilsonCarey McWilliams, a ful:I was too proudto stuffit in my bag, prolificsource of article ideas for the but too discouraged to studyit further. anda reliable Aftera while,though, magazine, guideto the acamyconscience got demics and journalists who we often the betterof me-I wouldbe a good soltappedforfree copy.SinceIwasaboutto dierand do my duty.Afteran hourwith
652 PS: Political Science and Politics

Bertrand de Jouvenel the city phone directory and the Paris street map, I found the approximatelocation of the Societe des Etudes et Documentation Economique, Industrielle, et Sociale (SEDEIS,de Jouvenel's research institute)and headed for the Metro. I remember nothing about the street and very little about the building.There was a small courtyard, an office for the concierge,and a stairwayleadingup to the mainfloor. At the top of the stairswas a door-but not an ordinarydoor. Thiswas an unforgettable,a terrifyan astonishing, ing door, and if I close my eyes I can see it still-a baroque masterpiece of ornately carved wood bearing a brass nameplate with the simple inscription But S.E.D.E.I.S. it was the size of the door that I recall most vividly:I am absolutely certain that the door was at least twelve feet tall, and that the doorknob was dead level with my forehead. I knocked-a waste of time. The door felt, to my knuckles,to be a good three feet thick. I listened-silence; evidently, everyone inside was thinking deep thoughts. Somehow, this silence was even more intimidating than the clack of typewriters and the shoutingof vigorousargument. There was a bell, which I hadn't noticed before-up high, like the doorknob. I rang, and waited. No answer. I didn't ring again-a good soldier is brave, but he doesn't push his luck. Back in the courtyard I asked the concierge when M. de Jouvenel would be back, hoping she would not understand my French, but half expecting her to say that "M. de Jouvenelis righthere, picking up his mail-would you liketo have a chat with him about his book?" He was away on vacation, she said, in perfect English, though others in the office should be returningshortly from lunch. (It was the middle of the afternoon.) I had been saved, it appeared, by the admirablework habitsof the French. strangecharacterswho come and go, only to reappear in later chapters (sometimes in disguise,bearingfalse names), and that, like a good novel, it has a rich but never improbable plot. (Before he became a politicalscientist,de Jouvenelwas a novelist and a journalist,and he knew how to tell a story.) The central character in the story is le pouvoir-translated into English as "Power." But "power" fails to convey the full meaning of the French term. In English, "power" is a quality,or attribute, as in "the power of the press" or the "power of the church." Le pouvoiris a an institution. thing,a force, and ultimately The "Power" of the title is the force that creates the centralizedstate, but the force itselfmay be found in a numberof settings, from a primitive village to the national offices of a modern trade union. Ploew
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On Poweris not, pace de Jouvenel, an overly complicatedbook. But it is not an easy book. I think I first began to understand it when I realized that it is in some ways like a very dense novel, filled with Summer 1988

In the pages of On Powerwe see this force almost at the moment of its birthalmost, but not quite, for Power is present in some form in the earliest humancommunities,before the birthof modern civilization, and when we first encounter written records we find that Power has alreadybegunto mature. It has acquireda personality, a character, and a past. To track the thing to its earliest manifestations, de Jouvenelargues, we have to rely on the science of ethnology,and on studies of the few remainingprimitive societies that are, presumably,much like the prehistoriccommunitiesfrom which our own civilization has descended. 653

Features

De Jouvenel'sdiscussionof Power in its primitivestate is fascinating,and while I have no doubt that it would have to be amended to accommodate more recent investigations, I do not believe that it would have to be changed in any of its essentials. ~. ^. eaP . t^^MC^^Wtt^

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The earliest societies, de Jouvenel reports (followingthe work of Frazerand others), were infusedwith magic,and the earliest form of Power was Magical Power. "... . primitivesocieties do not fall into any of our three categories, monarchy, aristocracy,and democracy. Neither nor the action the behaviourof individuals of the communityis determined by either one man or several men or all the men; they are prescribed by powers which overarch society-which certain men are able to interpretfor their fellows" (p. 71). These men (and sometimes women) are the Elders.Their power is their abilityto "force the hand" of the gods through appropriateritualsand observances, without which the people would suffer, or even perish. Yet if this were the only form of our ancestral societies, we would scarcely have emerged from the darkness. It was not: our past was more varied than this, and some societies apparently escaped from the age of MagicalPower relatively quickly.Some developed councilsof elders whose claim to rule, though nominally infact (the abilityto was utilitarian magical, improve crop yields, cure illness,mediate familydisputes, and so on). And it is easy to see in the assemblyof familyheads the earliestform of the ancientrepublicsfrom which so many of our own politicalaspirations are derived. But some societies moved in quite 654

another direction: toward the "patriarchate," in which councilsgave way to rule by a single will. The variety of primitive societies is partly a matter of historical accident, but whatever the reason it is clear that a number of circumstances made the patriarchate more likely,though not inevitable. Power is opportunistic;it has an instinct to expand, and will seek opportunitiesto do so, for without such an instinctit would be useless, replacedby a more vigorous Power. Yet for that very reason Power seeks opportunities to serve and occasions to obligate the members of society. And no event is so fruitful of such occasions as war: War and Power are thus intimatelyconnected. Yet why should there be war?Evidently because some peoples, or individuals, are naturallymore bellicose than others, or because they have a grievance with the established order. War provides the opportunity for a status revolution: the authorityof the Elderscan be dissolved by the solvent of war, which proves the superiorityof strengthover magicand wisdom. War provides the people on the bottom with a way of gettingto the top in a hurry. But whatever its cause, war leads to a profound transformation in society, by "build[ing]the bridge from one social regime and another," between, that is, the rule of the Eldersand the rule of the Patriarch.And in the role of the King, Power finds its first modern expression, bringingus also within the compass of recorded time. Power now has withinits graspthe work it was born for: to consolidate,to expand, to serve: by defendingagainstinvasion;by the plebsto the level of the nobles, raising or suppressing the former at the behest of the latter; by annexing new territory for restless families and superfluous young men. Power providesfor the possibility of in one place the indiscommand,by uniting pensible ingredientsof social survivaland progress: vigor, innovation, boldness (on the one hand),and conservation,stability, order (on the other). The rest of the story concerns the fate of these characters in the generations to come. Power acquires new masks, and new names: now it is the Kingin ParliaPS: Political Science and Politics

Bertrand de Jouvenel

ment, now the Emperor.At other times it will become Benevolent Despot, Enlightened Monarch,Sun King, CentralCommittee, Committee of PublicSafety. Power's subjects and rivalschange as well: where the RomanSenate once opposed Caesar, other senates oppose other would-be emperors; the barons who checked the feudal monarch are replaced by trade union leaders who snub presidents; the plebs, whose fortunes were so often caught up in the fate of Power, are replaced by vast populationsof ordinary folk who fear Power but seek in its efficiency a relief from the insecurity of modern times. And through all of these ages political thinkershave sought to understandand to harness our most dangerous social creation. (The harnessing of power to the public good is the subject of Sovereignty: An into the Political Good, publishedin Inquiry 1957.)Our failureto do so was manifestin the fires of World War II,and muchof On Poweris preoccupiedwith the reasons for this failure-and for the failureof so many intellectuals of the modern period to appreciate the danger that Power represents.

a book to be called TheNatureof Politicsthe first volume of what we hoped would be a trilogy on politicalscience, political economy, and politicaltheory. Accordingly, we wrote to him, stating our admiration for hiswork and enlistinghis cooperation, or at least his permission.We suggested meeting him in Toronto that summer, where he was scheduledto address a convention of the World FuturesSociety. About a month later we received a handwritten reply, in which de Jouvenel thanked us for our sympatheticinterest in hiswork, givingus his blessingto go ahead, but warningus that we would encounter difficulties in locating a publisher (this turned out to be a propheticwarning-we were rejected by every major university press in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain)."There was a phase," he noted, "marked by much publicationin the U.S. of my writings.Then a different phase of-presumably-disinterest. Contrarywise, in France there is a high tide. These ups and downs are part of a writer's career and when he writes with the purpose of explaining thingsto himself he does not mind much."

After publishing On Power,de Jouvenel in held facultyappointmentsat universities and the United States; he France,England, founded his researchinstitute,SEDEIS; and he even managed a return to his earlier literarycareer, with a new edition of his an novel of the Occupation(Les Francais), autobiography (Une Voyageur dans le siecle), a memoir of his wife (Revoir Helene),and an introductionto an edition of the letters of his stepmother, Colette. But it was in his scholarshipthat de Jouvenel made his most lastingcontribution: in several books and innumerable essays, in Frenchand in English,on a remarkablydiverse set of subjects: history, forecasting, economics, utopian novels, the rise of the "principate,"the theory of education, and the nature of political science. In 1980, Marc Landyand I decided to collect some of these essays, especially those from relativelyobscurejournals,into Summer 1988

Up untilthe moment we met him at his hotel in Toronto, in July,I had no idea of what de Jouvenel looked like. I expected an aristocrat (de Jouvenel inherited his father's title, but renounced it in the late 1940s)-without havingany idea at all of what a Frencharistocratshould look like. I suppose I expected a tall man of regal bearingdressed in an incredibly expensive suit. But here was an elderly man sauntering down the hall, carrying an ancient leather satchel, and dressed in the fashion of a young American academic of the 1950s: a corduroy sportcoat over an open-necked checked shirt, cotton slacks, and desert boots. He was not especially tall, and his age (and the briefcase)caused him to stoop, appearingshorter than he reallywas. The face that greeted us from insidethis unexpected costume was gaunt with fatigue, but alert and even mischievous. De Jouvenel'sabundanthair,as well as his moustache and goatee, were snow-white, 655

Features the reddishtint to his promiaccentuating nent nose and high cheekbones. His eyes were calm and steady, and they fixed us now with a friendly and expectant gaze from below a highand deeply lined forehead. He greeted us in English-only later did I become consciousof the fact that de Jouvenel's Englishwas American, rather than British: it was spoken with an American accent and was filled with American idioms. The voice matched the clothes. finance minister.Needless to say, no one else could recall it either.) The audiencefor de Jouvenel'stalk was a diverse group of about forty, including corporate executives, students from Toronto universities, academics from Canada and the U.S., a delegation of French-speaking graduate students from Quebec, and a staff member from a committee of the United States House of Representatives. With each group de Jouvenel was patient and attentive. He agreed to answer the questions from the Quebec delegation in French.He listened while an American businessman, infatuated with the sound of his own voice, discoursed at length on the need to "predict" the future-an approachto forecasting which de Jouvenel had spent many years trying to deflate. The conversation turned to science fiction.When the garrulous corporationexecutive tried to deliver a monologue on H. G. Wells, de Jouvenel silenced him (permanently)by noting that Wells had been a frequent guest in Baron de Jouvenel'shome when Bertrandwas a boy, and had been known to the children as "Uncle Herbert." By now de Jouvenel was visibly tired, and annoyed by the shapelessnessof the conversation.He had come to Toronto to make a point about forecasting and the "art of conjecture." He had made it; it was time for lunch.

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Marcand I were not registered participants at the World Futures conference, and were not sure we would be able to get in. De Jouvenel waved all such considerationsaside, usheringus into the hall at his side, along with his companionand literaryassistant, a young woman named Jeannie Malige, who had cared for de Jouvenel during a serious illness several years before, stayingon to help with the research for his autobiography. Mme. Maligewas clearlya devoted friend, keephim ingde Jouvenelto his schedule,chiding when he bummed a cigarette from me duringlunch,and chasingus away when he became overly tired. After greeting us he apologized for not havingremembered our names: his mind was failing him, he said, and it was doingso in an especiallyaggravating way. He could remember everything about a person except the person's name-a selective amnesiathat appliedto historical figuresas well as acquaintances. (Thiswas anotherof JeannieMalige's jobs, to fillin the blanksin de Jouvenel'smemory, a task at whichshe failedonly once duringthe conference:she could not recall the name of Louis Xl's 656

After lunch we accompanied de Jouvenel to his room, where Jeannie Maligefound copies of some of his recent books for us to take home. She then explained,quite firmly,that it was time for de Jouvenel to rest. We said goodbyeand that was the end of our visit. We never met again, but we correabout the book project sponded regularly, and many other things. My last letter from de Jouvenelwas sent in March 1984, surprisingly,from Fort Myers, Florida, where de Jouvenel and His handwere vacationing. JeannieMalige to read, the letwritingwas more difficult ter was short, and he was clearlylosinghis strength.Hiswords were about something else entirely, but they summarize eloPS: Political Science and Politics

Top of the Line quentlywhat he must have felt about lifein general. "Indeed, there was so much to the great dangersof our say ... regarding time. That is what we are engaged upon. ... I doubt that I shallfinishit." Muchmore pleasant,as a finalmemory, is Bertrandde Jouveneland JeannieMalige at lunch in the hotel in Toronto. De Jouvenel revived once he got away from the conference room. Then his eyes had often seemed fixed on some point in the middle distance, his mouth tight and almost stern. Now his face relaxed, his eyes lit up, his mouth softened, as he let himselfbe carriedalong by the prospects of conversation, food, and wine. He watched proudly as Jeannie Maligepracticed her English, whilegallantly sparingme the necessity of practicing my French.He asked us about the election campaignin America, the current state of race relations, our views on foreign policy. He dismissed French politics as impossibly absurd,and confessed a whollyimpractical loyalty to the Radical Socialists of his youth. GivingMme. Maligea guiltyshrug, he took one of my cigarettes, and then asked the waiter, in a comic-touristvoice, for some "native Canadianfood." But of allthe thingswe talkedabout that afternoon, there are two things I remember with special fondness-and I will let them close this reminiscence. At one point de Jouvenel became very earnest, and sought our advice about something: he and Jeannie Malige were thinkingabout rentinga car after the conferenceand takto France. ing a side-tripbefore returning What did we think of NiagaraFalls? The second incident concerned the wine. Naturally,when having lunch with a former member of the Frencharistocracy,it is prudent to defer to him on this, of all subjects. But our deference only made de Jouvenel playful:throwing open the wine list with an elaborate flourish, he announced, loudly enough for most of the restaurantto hear, and with a mischievous gleam in his eyes: "We are in Canada.We must drinka Canadian wine!" BostonCollege,Halehas recently edited The Nature Selected de of Bertrand of Politics: Essays Books,1987). Jouvenel (Shocken

Top of the Line: SPSS, SAS, and SYSTAT

Anne Permaloff Carl Grafton AuburnUniversityat Montgomery

In our last PS article we discussed the vicissitudesof statistics package purchasI ing. Our focus was on low and mid priced products. We found a much wider variation in performance and quality than is seen in more popularprogramssold to the businessmarketfor word processing,data base management, or spreadsheet work. Thisvariation and the associatedpossibility of buyinga package that does not meet one's needs makes statistical software selection especiallydifficult. Statisticspackages are not commonlyfound in retailoutlets so that in-storetrialscannot be made. Reviews and articlescan narrowthe field, but the user is still obliged to carefully and to study manufacturers' specifications discuss particular needs with company techniciansby telephone. We determinedthat for a largemajority of users the moderately priced SYSTAT was the best choice unless menus or high quality presentation graphics were required. A new graphics module corrects the latter problem. If one's data base is within 64 K, STATGRAPHICS with its wealth of statistical techniques, menu drivenease of use, and its superbgraphics was also recommended as was the inexpensive NCSS.2 None of these programs is as well known as the venerable SPSS and SAS. About the Author SPSSand SAS for the IBMPC (and more advanced IBMand IBMcompatible comto programsmany Dennis HaleisAssociate Professor of Political puters)are very similar Scienceat BostonCollege.WithMarcLandy, readers have used on mainframeor mini Summer 1988 657