Greg Weiner, American Burke: the Uncommon Liberalism of Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Abstract

Moynihan is presented here as a social scientist who understood the limits of his discipline. He endorsed the redistributionist liberalism of the New Deal while rejecting the provision of social services by the federal government (as seen in the Great Society programs of the 1960s) because he regarded the science of administration adequate to the former but incapable of managing the latter. His critique of Great Society ambitions led him to an appreciation for the ‘older’ political science of the American founders, especially as seen in The Federalist.