Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism by Paul Sabin

Abstract

Undeniably, the public-interest movement fundamentally altered American politics, but calibrating its precise impact is difficult given all the cross-currents and complexities of the U.S. system of government. Such is the challenge that Sabin accepts in this book. His primary focus is on Ralph Nader since Naderism catalyzed the larger movement. With the publicity surrounding his 1965 auto safety expose, Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile (New York, 1965), Nader brilliantly crafted for himself the image of a selfless ascetic speaking out on behalf of ordinary Americans. He capitalized on his expanding notoriety by mobilizing resources that he used to commission reports about the incompetence and pro-business biases of the administrative state. His unique style of advocacy inspired a generation of political activists. Indeed, in 1970, one-third of the students at Harvard Law School applied to work as summer interns on Nader’s projects.Despite Nader’s centrality, Sabin correctly credits other important figures in the early public-interest movement, notably John Gardner, Mark Green, Charles Halpern, Gus Speth, Harrison Wellford, and David Zwick. Nader was considerably better at generating news coverage of policy failures than he was at building an organizational edifice that could sustain itself. The environmental movement was more successful at institutionalizing its advocacy through the creation of new organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and through the growth of existing groups like the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society. Nader’s own ideology was oddly contradictory. He excoriated administrative agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration, arguing for weakening them by bestowing a greater role on citizens in agency policymaking. Yet, he also wanted agencies to be powerful enough to effectuate his recommended policy changes.In this well-researched book, Sabin relies on a mix of historical tools, including archival work with records from some of the groups, interviews with key figures, and oral histories. The book’s time frame is largely confined to the period between the publication of Unsafe at Any Speed and the end of President Carter’s administration, with just a little coverage in the last chapter of President Reagan’s administration. But what is most conspicuous by its absence in the book is coverage of the fierce mobilization of lobbyists in Washington to combat the assault on the preeminence of big business. This effort, well underway long before Reagan was elected, was effective at checking the rising power of the public-interest movement. David Vogel’s Fluctuating Fortunes (New York, 1989) covers this part of the story in great depth.The best part of Public Citizens is its chapter about Carter’s appointment of sixty public-interest movement leaders to positions in his administration. Nader, however, quickly concluded that Carter was disingenuously trying to coopt the progressive side of the Democratic Party. In Nader’s mind any compromise that the administration made to move policy forward was an abdication of principle. His vitriol aimed at former colleagues was shocking and, ultimately counterproductive, as it altered his image from crusader to loose cannon. Nader’s petulance aside, the conflict between principle and pragmatism is a familiar one in both U.S. political parties. Sabin details how this dynamic involving the public-interest movement frequently divided the Democrats during this period, though he showed little interest in trying to tie this movement to larger currents in the evolution of liberalism between the Great Society and Reagan’s election. As conservatives began leaving the Democrats in a backlash against the Civil Rights movement, the Party was transformed, becoming at once more diverse and more dominated by liberals.Although more definitive judgments await, Nader’s legacy is twofold. First, he and other progressives succeeded in gaining passage of groundbreaking legislation to promote consumer protection and to enhance environmental protection. Second, Nader’s belief that the parties were similar—“Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee” (157)—led him to run as the Green Party candidate for president in 2000. As a result, he threw Florida to the Republicans and thus the election to George W. Bush. Nader made an unconscionable choice, one that worked against everything for which he had fought.