April 1979

THE RECORD

No. 61

LYNDON B. JOHNSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

EDITOR: Marilyn Duncan

Modernization vs. Tradition vs. Equity to be Theme of Slick Conference

The triple collision of modernization, tradition, and equity in the developing world will be the topic of discussion at the 1979 Slick Conference April 19–20.

The conference, sponsored by the Distinguished Visiting Tom Slick Professorship of World Peace, will be held in the East Campus Lecture Hall.

Coordinator of the event is Visiting Tom Slick Professor Harlan Cleveland, director of the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies at Princeton, N.J. Dr. Cleveland served in the U.S. State Department from 1961 to 1965 as Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs, and then as U.S. Ambassador to NATO, 1965–69.

Professor Cleveland will open the conference at 9:30 a.m. April 19 with an address on "The Triple Collision of Modernization." His remarks will focus on the conflicts arising in developing countries from the simultaneous presence of modernizing influences, ancient traditions and religions, and the expectation of equity.

The session which follows Dr. Cleveland's address will be devoted to an examination of the theme in relation to Iran and Arabia, focusing on both causes and effects of the current situation in those areas.

Participants in this session will include Professor John Duke Anthony of the School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University; Ambassador Edward F. Henderson, former British Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and to the Arab State of Qatar; and Professor Paul W. English, Director of the UT Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

The afternoon session will turn to a discussion of Mexico, examining particularly the policy alternatives available in dealing with the "collision" in that country.

Scheduled panelists for this portion of the conference include Ambassador Antonio Gonzalez de Leon of the Colegio de Mexico, former Mexican Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva and former Under Secretary for Economic Affairs; Dr. Miguel Wionczeck, scholar at the Colegio de Mexico, who is an expert on Mexican development issues; Herbert Thompson, Diplomat in Residence at the University of Texas, who formerly was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City; and Professor Stanley Ross of the LBJ School and the UT Department of History.

The final session, beginning at 10:00 a.m. Friday, April 20, will focus on the topic, "How Do We Get the 'North-South Dialogue' Off Dead Center?" Panelists will consider possible solutions to the problems bred from the modernization-tradition-equity collision, looking at how these phenomena can be reconciled in a New World Order that benefits both the developing and the industrial nations.

Participants in the session will be Ambassador Donald Mills, current Jamaican Ambassador to the U.N., who serves as Chairman of the "Group of 77" and as a member of the U.N. Security Council; Professor Sidney Weintraub, holder of the Dean Rusk Chair at the LBJ School, who is currently a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; Professor Walt W. Rostow, UT Professor of Economics and History; and Professor Charles Kindleberger, of MIT, currently a Visiting Professor of Marketing at UT.

Presidential Management Internship Finalists Announced

Four second-year students out of the School's six nominees were selected to participate in the Presidential Management Internship Program for 1979–81. A fifth LBJ School student is an alternate for the program.

The School's finalists are Mitchell Goldstein, Russ Hedge, Jan Hilton, and Don Watson. The alternate is DeAnn Friedholm.

The program was created in August 1977 by Presidential executive order for the purpose of "attracting to federal service men and women of exceptional management potential who have received special training in planning and managing public programs and policies."

The interns will work fulltime for two years in development management positions in any of a variety of federal agencies. At the completion of their internships, they will be eligible for civil service appointments without further competition.

The internship program is being administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (formerly the Civil Service Commission). Dr. Alan K. Campbell, Director of OPM and former LBJ School Dean, has worked closely with the program since its inception.

Mitchell Goldstein was also a summer intern in Washington, working in the office of the assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He has a bachelor's degree in political science from Northwestern University.

Russ Hedge holds a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from the University of Wisconsin. Last summer, he was an intern in Washington, D.C., assigned to the subcommittee on economic development of the U.S. Senate's environment and public works committee.

Jan Hilton was another 1978 summer intern in Washington, where she served in the Civil Service Commission as a research and staff aide in the office of Dr. Alan Campbell. She has a bachelor's degree in natural research development from Michigan State University.

Don Watson served his summer internship in the Dallas office of the U.S. General Accounting Office. He has two degrees from East Texas State University—a B.A. in library science, economics, and finance; and an M.A. in education.

DeAnn Friedholm, the alternate, earned a bachelor's degree in government from UT Austin. She worked in Washington last summer as an intern in the office of Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas.

Almost eight hundred students competed in the Presidential Management Intern Program, and two hundred fifty were selected to participate. Students were judged on the basis of leadership, oral communication, interpersonal skills, problem solving and decisionmaking, organizational ability, and writing.

'ON THE RECORD'

The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library hosted a luncheon for members of the LBJ School faculty and staff March 28 for the purpose of promoting a mutually beneficial awareness of the activities of the two organizations.

* * * *

Dean Elspeth Rostow served on the Regional Selection Panel of the President's Commission on White House Fellows, which met in Dallas March 8–9.

On March 19, Dean Rostow was the keynote speaker at the 58th Annual Convention of the Gas Processors Association in Denver, Colorado. Her topic was "Sons the Sherman Act; or Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?" (Who Takes Care of the Caretakers?).

* * * *

Professor Norton Grubb will be in San Francisco April 6–10 to present a pa per at the Annual Meetings of the American Educational Research Association.

* * * *

Following the release of her autobiography in March, Professor Barbara Jordan has appeared on a number of nationally televised programs, including NBC's "Today" and "Tomorrow" shows and PBS's "Dick Cavett Show."

The book, entitled Barbara Jordan: A Self-Portrait, was published by Doubleday.

* * * *

Dr. Monica R. Lett, of the Dallas Authority, met with students in a seminar March 8. She spoke on the topic, "The Role and Responsibility of the Public Sector in the Provision of Housing and the Delivery of Human Services."

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Other speakers at the School during March included Professor Lewis A. Dexter of the University of Maryland; Professor Charles Kindleberger of MIT, who is currently a visiting professor in UT's Marketing Department; and Professor Michael E. Gleeson of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs in Minnesota; and Professor Sidney Jones, Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C.

Clifford Appears in Distinguished Lecturer Series

Clark Clifford, former U.S. Secretary of Defense (1968–69) and adviser to several U.S. Presidents since the Truman Administration, spoke at the LBJ School March 30 as part of the Distinguished Lecturer Series sponsored by the School and the Lyndon B. Johnson Library.

Previous speakers in the series have been Henry Kissinger and Dean Rusk, former Secretaries of State; Harold Wilson, former British Prime Minister; W. Averell Harriman, former Ambassador to Russia and Great Britain; Elliot Richardson, former U.S. Attorney General; and Sam Ervin, former U.S. Senator.

Mr. Clifford, who has been referred to as a "one-man brain trust," has been an influential adviser for decades to Presidents and political leaders. He has long been one of Washington's leading corporation lawyers and is now senior partner with the firm of Clifford, Warnke, Glass, McIlwain and Finney.

His first formal association with the White House began in 1946, when he served briefly as a naval aide to President Truman. When he left military service, he became President Truman's special counsel (1946–50), helping formulate the Truman Doctrine and the legislation that created the Department of Defense. He also was one of the principal architects of Mr. Truman's upset victory over Thomas Dewey in 1948.

Mr. Clifford served as a liaison during the transition between the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations. President Kennedy appointed him to the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in 1961, and Mr. Clifford was that board's chairman from 1963 to 1968.

As one of President Johnson's confidants, he was a general adviser to the President on a variety of foreign, military and domestic matters. President Johnson appointed him Secretary of Defense in 1968 to succeed Robert McNamara.

An account of Mr. Clifford's address, which focused on how wars start, will appear in the May issue of The Record.

Nominees for Texas Management Intern Program Announced

Five LBJ School students were nominated by the Dean's Office for participation in the Texas Management Intern Program.

The program was initiated this year by the Texas Merit System Council in response to the success of the Presidential Management Internship Program at the national level.

The aim of the program is to recruit outstanding public management graduates into merit system agencies.

The School's candidates are Donel Bagby, Chip Burgin, Howard Friedman, Paul Hilgers, and Barbara Weinberg.

The selection process will be conducted by the Merit System Council during April, and finalists will be announced in May.

Black Educators Visit School

Twenty-five members of the Texas Association of Black Personnel in Higher Education visited the LBJ School on March 19 during the Association's meeting in Austin.

An informal reception was held in the Faculty Lounge, and Professors Stephen Spurr, Lodis Rhodes, and Ken Tolo formed a panel to discuss the School's program and issues related to higher education policy.

Elizabeth Hall, Director of the School's Office of Admissions and Counseling, coordinated the visit through the Association's program manager, Mary McFall of Dallas.

25th Accounting and Finance Institute Scheduled for April

The Twenty-Fifth Governmental Accounting and Finance Institute will be held April 23–24 in the Thompson Conference Center. The program is sponsored annually by the LBJ School Office of Conferences and Training in cooperation with the University of Texas College of Business Administration, the Municipal Finance Officers' Association of Texas, and the Texas Municipal League.

The Institute is a continuing education program designed to enhance the professional development of municipal financial executives and other city officials whose official responsibilities involve financial management.

From time to time the program also includes pertinent topics of a nonfinancial nature, especially as these relate to the official duties of Texas municipal administrators.

This year's program will include addresses on and discussions of such topics as "Maintaining Sound Financial Conditions and Bond Ratings in the Austere Society;" "Municipal Taxpayer Revolts: Status and Strategies;" "Internal Revenue Service Arbitrage Regulations: Status and Compliance;" and "The Current Agenda in Municipal Finance."

Concurrent workshops on the afternoon of April 23 will examine topics related to budgeting, financial reporting, operating procedures, and long-range planning.

Among those scheduled to participate in the program are Norman E. Huggins, Director of Finance, City of Plainview, who is currently president of the Municipal Finance Officers' Association; Hyman Grossman, Vice-President of Municipal Ratings for Standard and Poor's Corporation in New York City; Thomas H. Muehlenbeck, City Manager, City of Galveston; Carole Keeton McClellan, Mayor of Austin; Harold F. Zick, Director of Finance for the City of Corpus Christi; S.G. Fullerton, Jr., County Auditor, Harris County; and Norman McK. Barker, Finance Administrator, City of Austin.

Registration for the institute will be held Sunday, April 22, at the Villa Capri Hotel.

Calendar of Events—April

3	12:15 pm	Brown Bag Lunch with Dr. Ahmad Esmat Abdel Meguid, Egyptian Ambassador to the U.N.: "The Current Situation in the Middle East"
5 6	4:00 pm	Visit to LBJ Ranch, LBJ School First-Year Students Deadline for Submission to Faculty Director of First Draft of Independent Project Report
9	12:15 pm	Brown Bag Lunch with David Freeman, Former Director, Tennessee Valley Authority: "America's Energy Future"
18	12:15 pm	Brown Bag Lunch: Panel from Army War College, on "U.S. Defense Issues"
19	9:30 am–12:30 pm and 2:00–4:00 pm	1979 Slick Conference "Modernization vs. Tradition vs. Equity: The Explosive Triple Collision"
20	10:00 am–12:00 noon	Slick Conference, Closing Session
23–27		Preregistration for Fall Semester
28	2:00 pm	School Picnic—Zilker Park Polo Tables
27	(tentative)	Workshop for Students on "Management Consulting in the Public Sector"

ALUMNI FORUM

Legislative Continuing Education Program

Meg Wilson, Alumni Continuing Education Coordinator, is planning a special spring program focusing on a "back room" look at the 1979 Texas Legislative Session. Meg is contacting several of the LBJ alumni who work in and around the Legislature about participating in an open discussion of the political maneuvering behind a few of the major issues of the session. Many Austin alumni already have expressed considerable interest in this off-the-record program. Final details will be transmitted by the phone network or in the May Record.

In addition, the roundtable discussion with former Austin mayors which had been planned for April has been postponed until a date in early summer. Details of the program should be available in May.

Last Call: Alumni Directories

1979 Alumni Directories are still available. If contributing alumni have not received copies, they should call Laura Doll at 451-0096. Other persons who may wish to purchase a Directory should contact Dennis Deegear at 476-8303. A Directory Update is planned for late May. Please contact the Board if you have information about relocated alumni for the update.

Viewpoint

Women and Environment

For some time now it has occurred to me that the conservative air was a dangerous one since it could lead to backsliding in areas I care about—the women's movement and environmental protection.

The worry is not unrealistic in light of Charles Schultz's push to tone down some environmental programs because they add to inflation, and the push to abolish abortion. But the lack of radical fervor does not mean that either of these movements is on the decline. On the contrary, they are institutionalized to such an extent that they are part of the indestructable bureaucracy.

Not only is the EPA well established, feared, and getting tougher under Doug Costle, but the Soil Conservation Service, a bastion of agricultural conservatism, is promoting dune protection and the Corps of Engineers is protecting wetlands. Congress will have to consider Carter's plan to create a Department of Natural Resources which would combine development interests with environmental protection advocates in a situation in which the environmentalists would be the bullies.

And Women. They are not doing as well as they want but it cannot be denied that the social system is sufficiently disrupted that 50 percent of the American women are working, more women are seeking public office, financial independence or codependence is essential, and lifestyles are changing enough that no one can really imagine going back to a time when all women were expected to fill the wife/mother role and no other. EEO is here to stay in whatever form—even to the point of challenging the veterans' point system. No agency or company receiving federal funds could imagine wholesale exclusion of women from the workforce—too many have proved themselves important to their employers.

So maybe there is a pattern to social change that we should think about. The radicals notice the problems before they get critical and scream to high heaven. And then when the issue is identified as important, coalitions form, confrontation politics occur within traditional arenas, and, as solutions emerge, they are institutionalized and nurtured along. Thus we (.?.) no longer have to fight consciously daily but we can get on about the business of watching out for the next problem to worry about. Isn't that what public policy is all about?

--Meg Wilson

The Alumni Association of the LBJ School welcomes the viewpoints of alumni for publication in this column. Letters should be addressed to Laura Doll, P. 0. 13241, Austin 78701.

It should be noted that the opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the LBJ School of Public Affairs or The University of Texas at Austin.

Johnson History Project: An Update

Professor Emmette Redford reports that the Administrative History of the Johnson Presidency now includes the following projects and authors:

1. "Staffing the Johnson Presidency," Professors Richard Schott and Dagmar Hamilton.

2. "Structuring the Executive Branch," Professors Marian Blissett and Emmette Redford.

3. "Intergovernmental Administration," Professor Jesse Burkhead, Syracuse University.

4. "Management of Macro-Economic Institutions," Professors James Anderson, University of Houston, and Professor Jared Hazleton.

5. "Implementation of Civil Rights Legislation," Professor Burke Marshall, Yale University Law School.

6. "Administration of Collective Bargaining in the Federal Service," Professor Albert Blum, on leave from the LBJ School.

7. "The President and Science and Technology," Professor Harry Lambright, Syracuse University.

8. "The President and the White House Staff," Professor Emmette Redford and a collaborator to be selected.

9. "The President's Role in Administration of Regulatory Functions," Professor David Welborn, Visiting Professor at the LBJ School.

10."Fighting Discrimination in the Public Service," Professor Richard Schott.

11. Two case studies: "President Johnson's Cost Reduction Program," and "President Johnson and House Committee Chairman: the Tax Increase Bill," Dr. Harvey C. Mansfield, Sr., Professor Emeritus, Columbia University.

The summer of 1979 will be a period of concentrated work on these projects. In addition to the work of professors at the LBJ School, Professors Anderson, Burkhead, Lambright, and Marshall will be working full-time on their projects. LBJ School Research Associates Kay Hancock and Robert Blum and staff secretary Debbie Dunmire will continue their work on the projects.

The Administrative History of the Johnson Presidency project is financed by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, and the Hoblizelle Foundation. It is conducted with the administrative supervision of Dean Elspeth Rostow and with academic coordination by Professor Redford.

Government-Business Partnership Explored at Symposium

(The following is a continuation of the report begun in last month's Record on a symposium held here March 1–2. The conference entitled "The Business of the Nation and the Nation's Business: Toward a New Partnership," was sponsored jointly by the LBJ School, the LBJ Library, the UT Graduate School of Business, and the UT Institute for Constructive Capitalism. This report of the proceedings is derived from releases by the UT News and Information Service.)

Following the keynote address by Felix G. Rohatyn of Lazard Freres and Company of New York, a panel of representatives from business, government, and the press discussed the topic "Rationale for a Business-Government Partnership."

Robert O. Anderson, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Atlantic Richfield Company, said in the opening speech that in view of the fact that the nation has become "highly factionalized," a serious constructive dialogue must be revived between business, government, and labor. He emphasized the country cannot solve the issues it faces, especially the energy issue, "as long as we retreat to our own positions."

He labeled the energy issue as the one which may decide whether free people can discipline themselves to make the judgments and take the actions that in the short-run "are painful" and in the long-run "are a must." In the past five years, Mr. Anderson observed, the nation has "literally gone backward" in dealing with the energy crisis.

Talk of a new partnership between business and government will be meaningless unless labor is considered as an equal factor, Mr. Anderson declared. He called the labor movement "one of the great successes of this century."

Noting the prodigious rate of growth of the government sector over the past thirty years, he suggested that the government, in pursuit of its own interests, has drained a great deal of capital that could have provided tools for the American working man.

The four panelists in this first session agreed that the largest stumbling block to a "partnership" between government and business in this country is public mistrust of both those sectors.

This is an era of "extraordinary skepticism," said Douglas Costle, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and chairman of the Federal Regulatory Council.

"We are dealing with a public that is distrustful of the institutions in their lives, particularly the large ones," Mr. Costle said. He called the situation "a breakdown in civil dialogue."

"People have withdrawn from the political process," he said, noting that less than 50 percent of those eligible vote in U.S. elections.

"We are approaching an information overload," Mr. Costle said. The public has difficulty in separating fact from fiction surrounding national issues, and institutions—including universities—have failed to help them sort things out, Mr. Costle charged.

As an example, Mr. Costle said there is "no fundamental agreement on what the energy facts are." Regarding nuclear power, he said the major problem is "where to locate the nuclear power plants." There is no national consensus for nuclear power, he said, and even among those who find nuclear power plants acceptable, the attitude is generally "not in my backyard."

From the point of view of the utilities, "the regulatory morass surrounding the nuclear industry is mindboggling," said Donham Crawford, board chairman of Gulf States Utilities Company. What he called a "growing webb" of regulations has had a devastating effect on the electric utility industry, he said.

"If the nuclear option is effectively destroyed, its death will have been brought on by slow government strangulation. . .," he said. Government must realize the social costs of its actions before legislation is enacted, suggesting government do some cost-benefit studies on proposed policies and let business have a larger role in public policy.

Mr. Crawford blasted special interest groups for their efforts to define the "public interest." He said groups that delay construction of "demonstrably needed energy facilities" should be held financially accountable for any cost overruns from that delay.

What is really needed in this country is an individual commitment from Americans of all sectors to identify the common moral point that underlies all their separate interests, said Leonard Silk, economic columnist for The New York Times.

"We must pull together as a country," he said. "We've got to have conflicts of interest, but they have to be controlled—not by government, but by ethics," he said. The newspaper columnist said the press itself is regarded by the public as a special interest since more than half of the newspapers in this country are owned by chains. To combat that image, the media should "play its role more professionally," Mr. Silk said.

The afternoon session on March 1 was devoted to an examination of the "Priorities for Partnership." Speaker for the session was Ambassador Robert Strauss, who serves as President Carter's Special Representative for Trade Negotiations.

Mr. Strauss identified major concerns that "should be the focus of our priorities in the coming years if we are going to move ahead."

He focused in particular on trade, which he called "the most crucial issue of the next decade." Cautioning against the "Smoot-Hawley" type of protectionist tariff legislation of the 1930s, he said that had been one of the actions moving a United States recession into a major worldwide depression.

"With our natural resources, our high technology, our abundant capital and our ever-expanding domestic market, we have been able to be foolish or at least not wise and do well," he said. "But now we are faced with a new near-term necessity of large oil imports and a major balance-of-payments gap, and we've got to develop some export capacity," he emphasized.

Additional areas of concern he mentioned were national productivity and overregulation by government.

"Many economists and business leaders have identified the deterioration in capital formation as a major contributor to our productivity slump, and I certainly agree with them,"he said in pointing to improving productivity as one fundamental way to increase the competitive position and marketing power of the nation.

"Our concern with overregulation is part and parcel of our fight against inflation," he said in comment on a second area of concern—the impact and desirability of further government regulation.

Agreeing that everyone wants clean air and water, safe products, decent working conditions and a better quality of life, he emphasized the problem of what all the regulations do to productivity. "The Council on Wage and Price Stability now estimates that government regulation may account for as much as 10 percent of our current inflation. Is that too much, or is that too little?" he asked.

Following the Strauss speech, two panel members questioned whether a partnership could even be forged between the public and private sectors.

William K. Coors, chairman and chief executive officer of the Adolph Coors Company, said that before government and business can work together they must come to a philosophical understanding about the nature of the free enterprise system.

Currently, the people of this society have a very negative attitude toward private business, Mr. Coors said. That attitude is based on "abysmal ignorance" of our system and "gross misconceptions" as to how it works, he added.

To support his opinion, Mr. Coors cited statistics gathered in a 1976 Gallup poll commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. While the average "take" on each corporate dollar after taxes in the U.S. is 5 percent, he said, a general consensus of individuals polled was that corporations earn about 33 percent on each dollar after taxes. An acceptable level of corporate profits on each dollar was agreed to be 17 percent, Mr. Coors said. Sixty-eight percent of those polled said they were dissatisfied with our American free enterprise system.

"Now that means only one thing," Mr. Coors said. "The dissatisfaction with our system is based on fallacious knowledge of the system. Thirty-three percent would be a rip-off. I think we all accept that. Seventeen percent would be a rip-off. But the dissatisfaction in our society rests and originates from this gross misconception."

Similar polls of high school and college-age students showed even more grievous misconceptions, in Mr. Coors' opinion. "Getting down to the matter of priorities, I feel that the number one priority is to correct this misconception," Mr. Coors said. "We should mandate that our young people get a firm grounding in how our system works so that they will judge the system on the basis of what it is, not on the basis of what it isn't.

"And, I would be hopeful that as and when our society can judge our great system on the basis of what it is, that this will create the philosophical attitude that will permit a constructive and productive partnership between American business and government."

John E. Swearingen, chairman of the board of directors of Standard Oil Company of Indiana and chairman of the board of the American Petroleum Institute, said that before a partnership can be forged the parties must agree on what kind of partnership they want.

"What do we mean by partnership?" he asked. "You can have a senior partner, you can have a junior partner, you can have a limited partner, you can have an equal partnership. And I think what has been happening to us in this country is that government is becoming more and more the senior partner."

Only one of the panel members endorsed wholeheartedly the concept of a partnership between business and government. Jack Conway, senior vice president of United Way of America, said there are four intractable problems of the nation that require a partnership to deal with them: the need to develop an energy policy to reduce our dependency on outside oil sources; inflation; evolving a trade policy that will relieve our deficit of payments in international trade; and, he said, "to do all that while we hold unemployment down and create new jobs."

Mr. Conway said a partnership is required so that national objectives and goals can be set that have the support of everyone's interest. Without the support, the trade-offs that will be necessary to accomplish those goals will not be understood, and therefore not accepted, he emphasized.

At a dinner held March 1 in conjunction with the symposium. Governor William P. Clements told attendees that business is partially responsible for the amount of government regulation it faces today. "But by conducting itself responsibly, I think that business will increase the likelihood of being treated responsibly by government," he continued.

Responsible actions on the part of business will not, by themselves, stop "the onslaught of government regulations," Governor Clements went on to say.

"With the economy as it is today, business must do all it can to reaccelerate productivity in the nation," he said. "It can help reverse the slowdown by redoubling its efforts and by seeking the cooperation of labor in measures to increase productivity."

"Furthermore, business must recognize that grudging tolerance of excessive regulation accomplishes nothing, but just invites more regulation," he said. "The private sector has a responsibility to speak out continually and to define strongly, but precisely and temperately, what the problems are that make relations between business and government less than satisfactory."

Talking alone, however, is not enough, he emphasized. "Businessmen must become personally involved in government, if only for limited amounts of time, to help instill in government their business methods and procedures," the Governor said.

Mr. Clements recalled his own business roots in Southeastern Drilling Company, which he founded in 1947. He resigned as chairman of the board and chief executive officer before taking office as Governor in January. Earlier, he left SEDCO for four years to serve as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1973–77.

"This background may not give me a clear vision, but it does give me a three-way vantage point," he said. "I have seen this issue from the perspective of business, from the perspective of the federal government and now from the perspective of state government."

Governor Clements called for the streamlining of federal regulations, which he described as "confusing, contradictory and always changing" in the manner they are written and administered. Such a streamlining is not synonymous with weakening or lowering government standards, he maintained.

"It is a search for a reasonable accommodation, and I support President Carter's recent statement that his Administration will continue its efforts to administer government regulations in a more effective manner, to cut the cost of government regulations on industry and to take into account economic considerations, where necessary," Mr. Clements said.

The March 2 morning session focused on the topic "Overcoming Fundamental Barriers to Partnership." Speaker for the session was Donald Rice, president of Rand Corporation.

Dr. Rice asserted that the current level of government regulation has encouraged conflict—"between the government and business, between business and 'public interest' groups, and even between governmental institutions."

Noting that the theory seems to be that from such conflict the true public interest will emerge. Dr. Rice said that once we find government involving itself in the level of detail it currently engages in, the result is not all that certain.

"The enlarged government involvement with previously private decisions is carried out by several different agencies of government in a largely uncoordinated way," he said, adding that "such governmental chaos visits several problems on private decision-makers," including "much greater uncertainty, a short-term perspective and inefficient use of resources."

Dr. Rice reported observations which indicate that even if we could coordinate the effects of separate regulatory agencies, it is not clear that we know how. He suggested that we need more analysis, by sector and by industry, of the combined effects of government regulations and other policies, just to understand the costs and the benefits.

In discussing possible answers to the problems, he proposed that we undertake the extremely complex and long-term job of modifying our institutions to make them more capable of handling the tasks assigned to them.

"I say, 'more capable' because I'm not sure that some of our goals can be achieved, regardless of our institutional arrangements," he said. "The first step would be recognition that the many regulatory goals are sometimes mutually conflicting and, in any event, cannot all be achieved at once.... Once we recognize that our resources are limited and that trade-offs must be made among equally laudable objectives, we have a start on a solution."

In the panel discussion that ensued, the mishmash of federal regulations took the brunt as a major barrier to creating a better partnership between government and business.

Ira Millstein, a New York City attorney, declared that "mechanically the system isn't working" but added that "nobody has the 'plumbing' to deal with it."

In calling for improvements in the procedures whereby regulatory agencies conduct their business, Mr. Millstein noted that administrative reform must begin by asking whether a regulation or an agency is needed in the first place. He suggested that every agency needs to have its existence questioned and that alternative forms of regulations need to be considered.

The attorney also proposed that federal agencies publish "regulatory impact statements" that would reflect how much it would cost to implement a regulation and how big a burden would fall on the consumer. "Maybe what the agencies need," Mr. Millstein observed, "is an SEC" (Securities and Exchange Commission) that would call for full disclosure of agency activity.

Perhaps the Congress can take a "mini-step" toward administrative reform, he said, by delegating powers to the President to ask agencies for disclosure. Mr. Millstein cautioned, however, that it would be impossible for any one person, even the President, to understand all the issues which regulatory agencies face.

Another panelist, Joseph Swidler, an attorney from Washington, D.C., said he did not think business and government could be "partners" because their roles and goals are different. But, he said he believes they can work together.

"The government understands," he said, "that if it doesn't cooperate with business, we lose the most productive part of our society."

Mr. Swidler observed that the direct intervention into the administrative process by single-issue voting groups and by the rise of "participatory democracy" had had an impact on governmental decisionmaking.

Noting that he had found "very little support for solutions of compromise," he emphasized that "someone needs to speak for the center instead of for the extremes." He said he felt the general public does not understand that government cannot accommodate all the demands of special-interest groups.

Mr. Swidler added that few people speak for the "trade-offs" (which he said represent the "over-all public interest") that are necessary to achieve some balance between the public and private good. "The voices for that kind of leadership are muted," he said. "The voices we hear are those of the demonstrators."

Harvey Kapnick, chairman of Arthur Andersen and Company, an international accounting firm, said the country is entering a new era where the nation must now agree that the major issue facing it is to remain economically strong. He noted the country, in his lifetime, went through two major eras—one of national defense "in winning an important war," the other in "our concern with social issues." The "given" in those eras, he said, was that the U.S. was a great nation, and "we thought we could stay economically strong merely because of that greatness."

He said delays the nation has experienced in balancing its trade budgets, in balancing its fiscal budgets, and in establishing national priorities "all lead to the conclusion that this overriding issue of strength in our economy just has not been agreed upon."

In the closing session on March 2, panelists looked to the future in exploring the topic, "Toward a New Partnership."

Roger B. Smith, executive vice president of General Motors Corporation, gave the opening speech, noting that government's involvement in business is a fact of life, and business leaders must realize that the old days of laissez-faire capitalism are gone forever.

Regulation in "appropriate amounts" is necessary and in some cases "is to be sought for," he said. But on the other hand, a great many regulations "need not be on the books at all, and they might not be if we in business had done earlier what we are doing today," he said. "By doing well what we do best—by serving and satisfying our customers—we could have avoided much of today's excessive regulation."

Mr. Smith expressed optimism that a working partnership betwen business and government will emerge because a new breed of business leaders is taking the helm of the nation's companies and corporations. Although still adhering to the economic values of free markets and free choice, business leaders today "are more ready to admit the need for some degree of government regulation," Mr. Smith said.

Since they began their careers after the early battles over government regulation already had been fought, Mr. Smith said, this younger generation in business has "never known a time when government was not deeply involved in the private affairs of business." He said he hoped a similar evolution toward a meeting of the minds was taking place among government leaders.

Mr. Smith did not advocate, however, a business posture of placid acceptance of all government regulation. Business is obligated to speak out against what it considers to be ill-conceived legislation or shortsighted policy, he said, but it should do so "with more facts and figures and less rhetoric and finger-pointing."

Government needs to alter its attitudes toward business, the speaker said, particularly toward business profits. "Almost every criticism of business carries the implication that business people are motivated solely by lust for profit—not a reasonable profit, but an enormous profit, an unconscionable profit—and that business will stop at nothing to get it," he said. That attitude is as wrong as the view that everyone in government places personal interest before the public interest, he countered.

The panelists for this session included Congressman J.J. (Jake) Pickle; author John Gardner, who is chairman of the President's Commission on White House Fellows; Frank Ikard, Sr., of Danzansky, Dickey, Tydings, Quint and Gordon; and Charls Walker of Charls Walker Associates, Inc.

Congressman Pickle expressed the belief that the major problem of business and government relationships really should be described as between business and "the bureaucracy." He told the audience that he is often put in the role of referee in conflicts between competing interests of business and governmental bureaucracies.

Further contributing to the estrangement of the public and private sectors is the emergence of more and more special-interest groups, and a feeling that everyone's group is being ill-used by the rest of the society, explained John Gardner, former chairman of Common Cause and former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. In what he termed "the era of the victim," it is difficult to get groups to engage in meaningful interaction, he said.

"A central problem of pluralism today is that the whole system can be held for ransom by one part," Dr. Gardner pointed out.

That position found agreement from Frank Ikard, who cited the virtual destruction of both major national political parties by special-interest forces as a prime example of the "problem of fragmentation" which reaches beyond and further complicates any bringing together of government and business in a more positive working relationship.

Charls Walker of Charls E. Walker Associates Inc., expressed his belief that the broader-based group—the middle class—would be able to get various interests into cooperation again. He defined the middle class as those persons in America who earn $15,000 to $50,000 a year. And he advocated further extensive economic education for the nation, especially through the media.

A set of national goals, whereby every segment can feel it is participating, would help the nation come to grips with its problems, Mr. Ikard suggested. "We can't have partnership in anything unless we know where we're going," he said. Such goals would have an enormous effect attitudinally, the panelists seemed to agree.

In summary. Professor W.W. Rostow of UT Austin, who moderated the discussion, used the term "communal purpose," the larger theme of community which frames it all, and called for a continuing dialogue on business and government cooperation.

Anderson:

[The labor movement is] "one of the great successes of this century."

Crawford:

"If the nuclear option is effectively destroyed, its death will have been brought on by slow government strangulation. ..."

Strauss:

"Our concern with overregulation is part and parcel of our fight against inflation."

Coors:

"The dissatisfaction with our [business] system is based on fallacious knowledge of the system."

Clements:

"Businessmen must become personally involved in government, if only for limited amounts of time, to help instill in government their business methods and procedures."

Rice:

"The first step would be recognition that the many regulatory goals are sometimes mutually conflicting and, in any event, cannot all be achieved at once. . . . Once we recognize that our resources are limited and that trade-offs must be made among equally laudable objectives, we have a start on a solution."

Swidler:

"Someone needs to speak for the center instead of for the extremes."

Gardner:

"A central problem of pluralism today is that the whole system can be held for ransom by one part."

Ikard:

"We can't have partnership in anything unless we know where we're going."

Boulding's Stable Peace Nominated for Award

Stable Peace by Kenneth E. Boulding has been nominated for a 1979 National Book Award.

Published in 1978 by The University of Texas Press under the sponsorship of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, the book is one of five nominations in the contemporary thought category. The volume consists of four lectures on peace presented by Dr. Boulding at the LBJ School in Spring 1977, under the auspices of the Distinguished Visiting Tom Slick Professorship of World Peace. Dr. Boulding was the first holder of that chair.

Stable Peace deals with the need for a policy for peace, designed to hasten the slow transition from constant wars to a state of continual peace. Dr. Boulding, who is a professor of economics and director of the program of research on general social and economic dynamics in the institute of behavioral science at the University of Colorado at Boulder, makes such recommendations as removing national boundaries from political agendas, encouraging reciprocal acts of good will between potential enemies, and exploring the theory and practice of nonviolence.

Award winners will be announced April 23 and the awards ceremony is scheduled for April 25 in Carnegie Hall, New York City.

Higher Education Working Paper Released

The School recently published the tenth volume in its Working Paper Series, a study on Higher Education Policy in Texas: The Role of State Government in Student Aid, Program Development, and Institutional Funding, by Professor Kenneth W. Tolo.

The report was initially prepared for the Sloan Commission on Government and Higher Education. The Commission, created by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, initiated studies of higher education programs and policies in nine states in an effort to understand and resolve problems at the federal level. Dr. Tolo conducted the study in Texas.

The report provides a broad overview of higher education trends and policies in Texas, focusing specifically on student financial assistance policies and programs, institutional funding, and issues facing the current Texas Legislature.

Dr. Tolo notes that state government's role in higher education has grown increasingly more important due to the magnitude of the higher education system in Texas and the shifts in fiscal, demographic, and social areas. "Whereas until recently the favorable nature of these trends led to virtually unopposed increases in state higher education programs, facilities, and appropriations," says the author, "decisionmakers now are giving vocal attention to fiscal conservation and tax reductions, to the financing of higher education not as an unquestioned 'social good' but as one of many competing socially desirable programs, and to the much-discussed movement of higher education from a period of fast-growth to one of no-growth."

In light of these trends, the study analyzes the changing role of the Coordinating Board; the increased interest at the state level in questions of faculty tenure, workload, and compensation; the problems with formula-based state appropriations; and state control of nonappropriated (including federal) funds, among other issues.

Apprenticeship Activities Scheduled for April

In conjunction with the research efforts of the Policy Research Project on CETA and the Apprenticeship System, three days of apprenticeship activities have been slated for April 18–20 at the Austin Marriott Hotel.

On April 18, a one-day workshop on the topic "Women in the Skilled Trades: What Works, What Doesn't" will precede the eighteenth meeting of the Federal Committee on Apprenticeship (FCA) on April 19–20.

Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Human Resources and the LBJ School of Public Affairs, the workshop will open with remarks by Dr. Robert Glover, Chairman of the FCA and participating faculty member in the Apprenticeship PRP. A keynote address by Robert J. McConnon, Administrator of the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, will be followed by three panel discussions focusing on solutions to the problems faced by women entering the skilled trades. Participants in the Apprenticeship PRP, directed by Dr. Kenneth Tolo together with Dr. John Gronouski and Dr. Glover, will assist in the administration of question and answer periods following the panel discussions.

First-day activities for the quarterly meeting of the FCA include a discussion on "The Implementation of 29 CFR 30—Equal Employment Opportunity in Apprenticeship and Training," group reports by members of the Apprenticeship PRP to FCA subcommittees on Goals and Federal/State Relations, and reports by the Policy Research group to the full Committee.

Friday's activities will be highlighted by the remarks of Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall and Alexis M. Herman, Director of the Women's Bureau. The FCA meeting will close with a summarization of findings on increasing the participation of women in the skilled trades and apprenticeship.

(Report by Ed Sierra and Rodney Rideau)

February Comment Advocates Social Security Reform

The February issue of the Public Affairs Comment, the School's quarterly publication, examines the underlying problems in the Social Security system and outlines a recommendation for comprehensive reform.

The article, entitled "Understanding and Resolving the Social Security Crisis," is by Jeffrey D. Dunn. Dunn, a 1978 graduate of the LBJ School, is currently an Administrative Assistant in the Texas House of Representatives. His Independent Research Project Report on Social Security, from which this article was derived, was cowinner of the 1978 Emmette S. Redford Award for Outstanding Research.

Dunn maintains that the Social Security system has fundamental weaknesses that threaten the economic security of this country.

Central among these weaknesses is its inflexible framework which he says cannot adapt to economic and social changes. This inflexibility, he continues, will eventually result in huge annual deficits and in less than adequate payments to beneficiaries. Dunn adds that the steady decline in population growth rates and the increased average life expectancy in the U.S. will at least double the per capita tax burden for Social Security, as "fewer workers will be supporting a larger group of beneficiaries."

He adds that this situation is even more serious in light of the fact that "the protection offered by Social Security is entirely dependent upon the ability and willingness of future taxpayers to provide the benefit payments that today's workers have voted for themselves."

The article goes on to say that Social Security must be reformed now, "in time to phase in gradually a system that anticipates the consequences of long-term demographic projections, relieves the growing conflict between taxpayers and beneficiaries, prevents the further intensification of inequities, and enhances foundations of our free economy."

Dunn's recommendation for reform involves the introduction of an employee option to terminate OASI coverage, and the introduction of general revenue financing to cover payments to current beneficiaries. The option to terminate Social Security tax payments would rest on the provision that no less than 3 percent of the employee's wages go into approved private pensions, individual retirement accounts or Keough Plans, or public employee pensions.

The author maintains that most workers will opt for the private plan, as it will give them more direct control over their retirement incomes.

Among the advantages this plan purportedly would have are the following:

• the huge annual deficits which are inevitable under the present system will be avoided;

• many employees will not only be spared an increased tax burden, but will realize a substantial increase in current wage income;

• "private plans offer greater assurance that a specified level will be paid," as the money paid in is "legally owned by the contributor;" and

• workers will be able to predict their retirement incomes in advance.

Copies of the Comment are available from the School's Office of Publications.