America at Century's End (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 203 Party (PNP), statehood is not so much a matter of self-government as a matter of ensuring that federal benefits will continue to flow. Since over half of all families receive food stamps in Puerto Rico, the statehood movement has potentially massive popular support. Carlos Romero Barceló, co-founder of the PNP, acknowledged this source of support for statehood in his 1973 book La Estadidad es para los Pobres (Statehood Is for the Poor). This inversion of support for statehood—first backed by landowners, now by the landless—should be considered by the U.S. Congress as it debates Puerto Rico's political future. (Independence is only for those bold enough to reject both American investment and federal transfer payments, and die option garners little support.) Energy Committee chairmanJ. BennettJohnston has continued to stress that the solution to the Puerto Rican question should be revenue neutral , but that seems unrealistic since Puerto Rico is twice as poor (in per capita income) as America's poorest state. Meléndez seems to indicate that the prostatehood forces, with their emphasis on federal aid, are not too concerned about federal revenue; they have few ideas for keeping U.S. investment on the island if tax exemptions are withdrawn. One only wishes that Meléndez had made such observations more emphatically . He is a skilled analyst, but his book stresses the details of political party struggles instead of incisive interpretations of those struggles, perhaps because it began as a doctoral dissertation. None of Meléndez's observations are as trenchant as those of Gordon Lewis, author of Notes on the Puerto Rican Revolution and several other books about Puerto Rico, who wrote, "The ruling class does not rule because the island economy is really governed by the multinational corporations; and the working class does not work because the work ethic has been destroyed by a U.S. federal food stamps program that destroys the incentive to work." A Puerto Rican rebuttal to that charge would be welcome, especially as American and Puerto Rican leaders grope their way to a stable and lasting political relationship. America at Century's End. ByJames Schlesinger. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989. 113 pp. $18.95/cloth. Reviewed by Bill Mikhail, Economics Researcher, Center for Strategic and International Studies. James Schlesinger, drawing on his long and diverse experience, has written a concise and elegant book analyzing many of the trends that have influenced the United States and addressing many of the issues that have shaped and will continue to shape the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. The book is a collection of three lectures given by the author as part of Columbia University's Radner Lectures series in 1988. The first section is entitled "The Setting: What America is Like," and relates how "government operates to what America is like." Schlesinger's basic assumption is that America's unique character determines its foreign policy. For example, freedom is more prevalent 204 SAIS REVIEW in the U.S. than in other countries. Hence, he believes "foreign policy does not rest upon a definition of the national interest. It rests on public opinion." In a Tocqueville-like analysis of what America is like, Schlesinger^ theme is that U.S. foreign policy has been determined by the belief in an American mission. The geographical isolation it enjoys has increased its ability to make policy choices, and has also contributed to its sense of invulnerability. Another characteristic is the historical belief that our policies are morally right and that they must succeed. Schlesinger also turns a critical eye on the dynamics of the executive and legislative branches. The power of the White House, he claims, stems less from constitutional right than from its power of persuasion. Ideally, Schlesinger believes White House staff members should impress upon the President not "what may theoretically lie within his constitutional powers," but rather his practical limitations. Instead, Schlesinger accuses staffers of power aggrandizement "to convey that I am closer to the President than thou." Another danger occurs when staff allow the President to believe that "all his problems are external," stemming from other governments' departments and agencies. This preempts the advice and experience...