ABSTRACT
Edward C. Banfield is less a conservative than a restorationist. He believes in the American past with far more fervor than he does the American present. In "Party Reform in Retrospect", Banfield bemoans the undoing of the American system by those liberals who fail to understand "that man is a creature more of passions than of reason" and that government "must have limited objects". To the unanticipated benefit of his adversaries, the policy makers rather than to any enhancement of conservative political doctrine, Banfield insists on the foolhardiness of meliorative action. Banfield's belief that public libraries should be places for serious reading not broad-based entertainment is not just an ideological posture but a functional alternative to an institution that has become decreasingly effective. Banfield restores a world in which choice involves arbitration, struggle, and values, not just an aggregated set of interests.
