RAND Corp. forum on James Q. Wilson

On Thursday the 17th, I attended a forum at RAND and their Pardee RAND Graduate School on "The Intellectual Life and Legacy of James Q. Wilson."  He died last year after a distinguished career that included board member of the RAND Corporation and it's graduate school.  He was know for his analyses of the nature of bureaucracy.  He was 80 when he died 3/22/2012.  His books included a textbook "Bureaucracy:  What Government Agencies Do and Why they Do It."  He is also famous for teaching the "Broken Window" philosophy of policing.  I attended a RAND forum last fall that discussed this and included Charlie Beck, LAPD Chief, on the panel.  He taught at government at Harvard for 26 years, management and public policy at UCLA for 10 years, public policy at Pepperdine for 9 years, and a senior fellow in political science at Boston College from 2009 until his death.

The panel was introduced by Michael Rich, president of RAND.  He said that the Pardee RAND graduate school has 100 PhD students and 200 faculty members.  The panel members were Pietro Nivola, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, R. Shep Milnick, professor at Boston College, Angela Hawken, Associate Professor of economics and policy analysis a the the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University, and Susan L. Marquis, dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

The panel discussing his life and works made the following comments:  He worked from the perspective of a regular citizen, asking questions, observing varieties of police behavior.  He took an anthropological approach, observing and avoiding conventional wisdom.  He was a neo conservative in an environment of liberals.  He didn't attack Bureaucracy, it does work when people have clear and manageable tasks.  He was not a theorist...he looked at evidence.  Regarding crime, he supported incarceration, swift and certain sanctions although research shows that it doesn't matter about the severity of the sanctions.

He taught about issues of morality, character and civic virtue and governments role in shaping character.  Regarding the "Broken Window" approach they said it does not mean zero tolerance but instead to focus on what matters and enforce that to achieve an orderly environment.  For policing, he taught that relationships with the community matter and how citizens view the police.

As a teacher he asked deep questions like 'What is Democracy.'  He loved intellectual engagement with students and was available to them.  He was a brilliant lecturer and performer often receiving standing ovations. 

I will be reading more about Dr. Wilson as it seems he was a remarkable man who left an important legacy.