Benjamin Ginsberg (political scientist) explained

Benjamin Ginsberg
Main Interests:Analysis of U.S. government; Jewish history; higher education policy; societal impact of war and violence
Education:University of Chicago
Workplaces:Cornell University
Johns Hopkins University
Discipline:Political science
Occupation:Chair, Johns Hopkins University Center for Advanced Governmental Studies
Website:Faculty page at JHU

Benjamin Ginsberg (born 1947) is an American political scientist who is David Bernstein Professor, and Chair of Center for Advanced Governmental Studies, at Johns Hopkins University.[1] Much of his earlier career was spent at Cornell University.

Noted for holding libertarian views,[2] Ginsberg is known for his criticism of American politics, in which he says that citizens have become "marginalized as political actors" and political parties weakened while state power has grown. His assessment of the futility of voting, along with his notion that the public has an illusion of control over government, has caused controversy. He is a co-author, along with Matthew Crenson, of Downsizing Democracy, 2004, which received critical attention in mainstream newspapers.

Biography

At the University of Chicago studying political science, Ginsberg earned a bachelor's degree in 1968, a master's degree in 1970, and a doctorate in 1973.[3]

At Cornell University, Ginsberg was an instructor (1972), assistant professor (1973), associate professor (1978), and professor (1983).[3] There he taught courses such as "Political Parties and Elections" and "Criminal Justice and Public Policy".[4] He became director of the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs.[5] He also acted as faculty advisor to the Cornell chapter of the College Republicans student organization.[6]

He returned to University of Chicago in 1992 as the Exxon Foundation Lecturer for the Committee on Social Thought, also becoming a professor at Johns Hopkins University later that year.[3]

He won the George E. Owen Award for outstanding teaching and service in June 2000, and again in 2016. From 2002 to 2004, he served as president of the National Capitol Area Political Science Association.[3]

Work

Downsizing Democracy

This 2002 book received serious critical attention from reviewers in major newspapers who explained, and criticized, the analysis of Ginsberg and co-author Matthew Crenson.

The Captive Public

Citizenship, political parties, and polling

Ginsberg has criticized the Washington political climate as "toxic", characterized by a "cycle of attack and counterattack" in which minor indiscretions are used as political weapons. Ginsberg sees this as a "structural" problem.[11] While Ginsberg sees voting as a passive and meaningless act which gives the illusion of public control over government, he sometimes criticizes both political parties as having a "resistance" to sincerely working towards increased voter participation. One newspaper reporter, writing about low voter turnout in 1998, suggested there was a "deep-rooted resistance within both parties to expanding the national electorate," and quoted Ginsberg as saying "Politicians who have risen to power in a low-turnout political environment have little to gain and much to fear from an expanded electorate." Ginsberg added when officeholders talk about "getting out the vote," they generally mean their own voters, not non-participants.[12] Ginsberg argued that citizenship has been undermined by a move to a voluntary military. He believes citizen participation in the military is good since it strengthens patriotism, which means "sacrifice and a willingness to die for one's country." But the switch to a voluntary military eliminates "a powerful patriotic framework" since "instead of a disgruntled army of citizen soldiers, the military seems to consist of professional soldiers and private contractors." Ginsberg suggested that the "government learned the lessons of Vietnam and has found ways to insulate the use of military force" from society.[13] Ginsberg criticized American leaders for trying to wage war on terrorism without any sacrifice from citizens: "U.S. leaders have pleaded for what can best be described as defiant normalcy – living, spending and consuming to show that terrorists won't change the American way of life," according to a reporter commenting on Ginsberg's views.[13] Ginsberg has suggested that American political parties have less and less influence.[14]

Ginsberg has commented on campaign strategies; for example, he suggested that a photo of young Bill Clinton shaking the hand of President John F. Kennedy, taken by photographer Arnold Sachs, was used by campaign operatives to reinforce the idea of Clinton as "heir apparent" to the Kennedy legacy.[15] [16] He also commented on the tight presidential primary race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in 2008, and compared the two candidates to "Walmart and Kmart – they're occupying the same space."[17] Ginsberg has a cynical outlook, seeing the Republican Party as courting Jews not for their votes but for their financial contributions. He was quoted as saying: "When the numbers are added up, we will probably find that Jewish money was especially important to the Republicans this year."[18] In another instance, Ginsberg criticized the administration of FDR for the tactic of having federal investigators sift through tax and financial records of opposition politicians.[19] He's known for speaking bluntly about religious politics: for example, he said "Jews have always been the brains, the wallet and the legs of the Democratic Party," in an interview in 2002.[20] Ginsberg participated in panel discussions about polling and democracy.[21]

The effect of administrative bloat on universities

Ginsberg has been an outspoken critic of the expansion in the number and pay of non-teaching university administrators on campuses throughout the world.[22] As these administrators now outnumber faculty in every university in the U.S., he points out that this is the fundamental reason for rapid tuition increases despite the fact that the faculty to student ratio has remained nearly unchanged and faculty salaries generally track inflation. There is general consensus that Ginsberg's observations are correct with some studies showing that administrators not qualified to be assistant professors in their own discipline are hired to oversee faculty at all levels.[23] These conditions have incited rage in some faculty,[24] yet little has changed at university campuses since the publication of Ginsberg's book. Ginsberg places the blame not only on administrators but also on faculty for ceding their universities to inept administrators. Even critics have said, "Ginsberg rightly points out that numbers of administrators and professional staffers have grown far more quickly than numbers of faculty, pushing up the costs that students and their families pay without enhancing the academic side of their experience."[25]

Books

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Benjamin Ginsberg . Johns Hopkins University . July 4, 2024.
  2. https://www.c-span.org/video/?419699-1/qa-benjamin-ginsberg Interview
  3. News: Benjamin Ginsberg Administrative Appointments. Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins University. 2009-10-29. 2009-10-29.
  4. Book: Cornell University Announcements: College of Arts and Sciences, 1974 - 75 . Cornell University . July 1, 1974 . 104 .
  5. News: Cornell Professor Takes New Look At Eisenhower's Military-Industrial-Complex Speech . TradeKorea . 2 . unknown . 1991 . 12 .
  6. News: Cornell University Student Organization Directory: Spring '86 . Cornell Daily Sun . February 5, 1986 . 17 .
  7. News: Associated Press. Americans participating less and less in civic life. But the decline of mass political participation is not simply a consequence of the decay of civil society brought on by TV, suburbanization and busy lives.. USA Today. June 5, 2004. October 29, 2009.
  8. News: Kerry Lauerman. Polls Apart. review of: DOWNSIZING DEMOCRACY: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public, By Matthew A. Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg. The Washington Post. November 3, 2002. 2009-10-29.
  9. News: Robert Heineman. Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public (book review). Crenson and Ginsberg argue that as government has burgeoned, Americans have been transformed from citizens who are effective political participants into customers who are recipients of government services.. The Independent Review (quarterly journal). 2002. 2009-10-29.
  10. News: Mark Crispin Miller. SUCKERS FOR ELECTIONS (book review). review of: THE CAPTIVE PUBLIC How Mass Opinion Promotes State Power. By Benjamin Ginsberg. The New York Times. February 8, 1987. 2009-10-29.
  11. News: Ronald Brownstein. Bush's Call for Civil Tone Gets Rude Response. (Washington's toxic climate) ... It is structural, in other words, not personal. Los Angeles Times. January 10, 2001. 2009-10-29.
  12. News: Robert Shogan. Politicians Embrace Status Quo as Nonvoter Numbers Grow. Politicians who have risen to power in a low-turnout political environment have little to gain and much to fear from an expanded electorate, said Ben Ginsberg. Los Angeles Times. May 4, 1998. 2009-10-29.
  13. News: Chuck Raasch, Gannett News Service. What does it mean to be a patriot?. Patriotism, in part, means sacrifice and a willingness to die for one's country, said Benjamin Ginsberg, a Johns Hopkins University political scientist and co-author of Downsizing Democracy.. USA Today. July 3, 2004. October 29, 2009.
  14. News: Robert Shogan. Politics – Shad and Senate Candidates Both Feeling the Heat in Virginia – State's contentious slate converges on bipartisan fish cookout. The voters smell desperation campaigning. Parties mean less and less, and each so-called party is breaking up into various wings.. Los Angeles Times. May 5, 1994. 2009-10-29.
  15. News: Adam Bernstein. News Photographer Arnie Sachs; Took Pictures of 11 Presidents. The Washington Post. November 7, 2006. 2009-10-29.
  16. Web site: The image world has lost the following: ARNIE SACHS. Masters Of Imaging. 2009-10-29. 2009-10-29. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110727070636/http://www.mastersofimaging.org/Reflections.html. 2011-07-27.
  17. News: Ariel Alexovich. The Early Word: Democratic Debate Reviews. It's Wal-Mart and Kmart – they're occupying the same space. The New York Times. October 31, 2007. 2009-10-29.
  18. News: James D. Besser. Mixed News for GOP Jews. When the numbers are added up, we will probably find that Jewish money was especially important to the Republicans this year. Jewish Journal. November 4, 2004. 2009-10-29.
  19. Grigg, William Norman. FDR's patriot purge. (Cover Story History). federal investigators 'were free to devote a great deal of energy and attention to the tax records and finances of politicians who sought to use anti-Semitic appeals to attack the Roosevelt administration'. The New American. Jun 16, 2003. 2009-10-29.
  20. News: Jonathan Rosenblum. Time to Switch Political Horses?. As Johns Hopkins University political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg explained last week in the Jewish Week: 'Jews have always been the brains, the wallet and the legs of the Democratic Party'. Hamodia. May 10, 2002. 2009-10-29.
  21. News: Has Polling Killed Democracy? . a panel discussion titled 'Has Polling Killed Democracy' that will examine public opinion polling's effect on American democracy. Mark Blumenthal, Benjamin Ginsberg... . University of Virginia – Miller Center of Public Affairs . April 25, 2008 . 2009-10-29 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100409090041/http://millercenter.org/public/conferences/polling/miller-center-polling-resources . 2010-04-09 . dead.
  22. The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters (2011) Oxford University Press
  23. 10.1080/13583883.2016.1181198. Are you overpaying your academic executive team? A method for detecting unmerited academic executive compensation. Tertiary Education and Management. 22. 3. 189–201. 2016. Pearce. Joshua. 148102314.
  24. Web site: The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters. December 2011.
  25. Our Universities: Why Are They Failing?. The New York Review of Books. 2011-11-24. Grafton. Anthony.
  26. Web site: Benjamin Ginsberg. Johns Hopkins University. 2009-10-29. https://archive.today/20121211095731/http://advanced.jhu.edu/faculty/view/?id=95. dead. 2012-12-11. 2009-10-29.
  27. News: Matthew Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg. Downsizing Democracy. 2009. 9780801878862. 2009-10-29.
  28. Benjamin Ginsberg was interviewed on 12-9-2014 on C-SPAN's BookTV.
  29. https://www.c-span.org/video/?419699-1/qa-benjamin-ginsberg Interview