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Andrew Arato Introduction IT WAS CLEAR FROM THE DISCUSSIONS AT THE FEAR CONFERENCE, AT w hich the papers in this volume were presented, that most of those present—though by no means most of the country—think veiy nega­ tively of what has happened to the foreign policy of the United States, and what has happened as well to internal protections of civil liber­ ties. Elsewhere in this volume, George Kateb says that the United States is engaged in a kind of anti-constitutional experimentation as far as domestic affairs are concerned. I would add that internationally we are engaging in anti-internationalist or anti-universalist experiment. Most of us at the conference, although again, perhaps not most in the coun­ try (but potentially, even in the country) hope that these experiments will not succeed. What this volume shows is what the roots of these policies are. There has been some discussion of the motives of the people who initi­ ated them, and there has been considerable discussion about how these people actually can get away with it. The theme of the conference, and the title of this volume, “Fear,” indicates that most of us, and probably all of the leaders concerned, think that the great fear after September 11 has a lot do with them actually getting away with, so far, these two experiments. Relatively little has been said, however, about what could be done about it. A change in administration is one possibility, but as we see from the articles in this volume, there are deep systemic, struc­ tural, and ideological problems in our history, which just one change of government will not in itself address. The papers in this section contribute to answering the questions about what has happened, and social research Voi 71 : No 4 : W inter 2004 965 how it was possible for the things to happen that did, but they also begin to address what can be done about it in the longer term. This is an essential discussion, because it is not enough to say things are bad. I believe it is also important to say—and it is a very American thing to say, after all—that it really could be better, and that even we ourselves are capable of doing something in order to facilitate change. 966 social research ...

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