Edward C. Banfield

'''Edward Christie Banfield''' (November 19, 1916 – September 30, 1999) was an American political scientist, best known as the author of ''[[The Moral Basis of a Backward Society]]'' (1958), and ''The Unheavenly City'' (1970). His work was foundational to the advent of the policing tactic of [[broken windows theory]], which was first advocated by his mentee [[James Q. Wilson]] in an Atlantic Monthly article entitled "Broken Windows".<ref>Vitale, Alex S., ''[[The End of Policing]]'' (Verso 2017), pp. 19-22, https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing</ref>

One of the leading scholars of his generation, Banfield was an adviser to three [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] presidents: [[Richard Nixon]], [[Gerald Ford]], and [[Ronald Reagan]]. Banfield began his academic career at the [[University of Chicago]], where he was a friend and colleague of [[Leo Strauss]] and [[Milton Friedman]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://edwardcbanfield.org/2011/02/19/leo-strauss-remarks-at-farewell-to-e-c-banfield-on-departure-from-chicago-1959-2/|title=Leo Strauss, "Remarks at Farewell to E.C. Banfield on Departure from Chicago," 1959.|website=EdwardCBanfield.org|date=February 19, 2011 |language=en|access-date=December 31, 2018}}</ref> In the latter half of the twentieth century Banfield contributed to shape American conservatism through the publication of sixteen books and numerous articles on urban politics, urban planning and civic culture.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the City|last=Caves|first=R. W.|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|pages=28}}</ref>

In 1959, Banfield went to [[Harvard]], where he remained for the rest of his career except for a brief tenure at the [[University of Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://contemporarythinkers.org/edward-banfield/biography/|title=Biography|website=Edward C. Banfield|language=en-US|access-date=October 17, 2019}}</ref>

==Family==

Banfield grew up on a farm in [[Bloomfield, Connecticut]] and attended the [[University of Connecticut]], where he studied [[English studies|English]] and [[agriculture]].

His wife, Laura Fasano Banfield, learned [[Italian language|Italian]] as a child, and she helped her husband with his book about [[Chiaromonte]], a poor village in Southern [[Italy]] (''The Moral Basis of a Backward Society''). She also collaborated with [[Harvey Mansfield]] on a translation of [[Niccolò Machiavelli]]'s ''[[Florentine Histories]]''. She died in 2006.

Banfield’s son, Elliott, is an artist/designer/cartoonist in [[New York City]]; his daughter, Laura, is founding partner of law firm Hoguet, Newman, & Regal, LLP and the mother of three daughters, Laura Kosar, Helen LaCroix, and Marie Hoguet.

==Involvement with government aid programs==

Banfield worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Farm Security Administration, traveled in the West, and observed the effects of government projects.<ref>Kosar, Kevin R. and Lee, Mordecai, [https://edwardcbanfield.org/2013/01/08/edward-c-banfield-the-liberal-who-got-mugged-on-the-way-to-the-academy/ "Defending a Controversial Agency: Edward C. Banfield As Farm Security Agency Public Relations Officer, 1941–1946"], Federal History journal, January 2013</ref> Although he initially supported President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] and the [[New Deal]], Banfield gradually became skeptical of government attempts to construct housing, support the arts, etc. Well before [[Lyndon Johnson]]'s [[Great Society]] programs, Banfield had decided that government aid to the poor would make the givers of aid feel virtuous but would not improve the lives of the receivers of aid. He argued that "the real reason for the passage" of the legislation establishing the [[National Endowment for the Arts]] "was, and is, to benefit... the culture industry of [[New York City]]."<ref>[[Bill Kauffman|Kauffman, Bill]] (March 23, 2009) [http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/mar/23/00035/ The Artist as a Kept Man], ''[[The American Conservative]]''</ref>

Banfield's views were controversial, and ''The Unheavenly City'' sparked much debate.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sowell |first1=Thomas |title=The Unheavenly City at Fifty |journal=Claremont Review of Books |date=Fall 2020 |url=https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-unheavenly-city-at-fifty/ |access-date=November 25, 2020}}</ref> According to MacInnes, Banfield: :made a simple and well-documented case that the problems played out in ghetto neighborhoods were a consequence of concentrated lower-class populations. Race was not the critical issue, he said. The black poor, Banfield suggested, were no different from other (white) lower-class Americans: they had no fondness for work, no strong family ties, an easy acceptance of criminal behavior, no brief for schooling, and no future perspective. Banfield argued that even well-pruned government programs could not undo the harm caused by class differences.<ref>(MacInnes 1996:57) {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20040101121246/http://www.vernonjohns.org/plcooney/whiterac.html White Racism]}}</ref>

His Harvard colleagues described him as "an individual with a strong and distinctive character that impressed itself on all who met him" and as a man who enjoyed " the delights of humor, long meals, and friendly company."<ref>{{cite web | author = Huntington | author2 = Maass | author3 = Wilson | title = Memorial Minutes: Edward C. Banfield | publisher = Harvard University Gazette | date = October 17, 2000 | url = https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2001/01/memorial-minutes/ | access-date = November 23, 2006 }}</ref> Banfield had "a reputation as a brilliant maverick", and his "books and articles had a sharp contrarian edge. He was a critic of almost every mainstream [[liberalism|liberal]] idea in domestic policy, especially the use of [[federal aid]] to help relieve [[urban area|urban]] [[poverty]].<ref>{{cite web | last = Bernstein | first = Richard | title = E. C. Banfield, 83, Maverick On Urban Policy Issues, Dies | work = New York Times | date = October 8, 1999 | url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F6061EFD38550C7B8CDDA90994D1494D81 | access-date = November 23, 2006 }}</ref>"

Banfield taught many conservative scholars, including [[James Q. Wilson]] and [[Martha Derthick]]. He also taught [[Christopher DeMuth]] and [[Bruce Kovner]], leading figures at the conservative [[think-tank]], [[American Enterprise Institute]]. He was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1961.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=May 17, 2011}}</ref>

==Published works== * ''Government Project'' (1951) * ''Politics, Planning, and the Public Interest'', with Martin Meyerson (1955) * ''[[The Moral Basis of a Backward Society]]'' (1958) * ''Government and Housing in Metropolitan Areas'', with Morton M. Grodzins (1958) * ''A Report on the Politics of Boston'', with Martha Derthick (1960) * ''Political Influence'' (1961/1982/2003) * ''Urban Government: A Reader in Politics and Administration'' (1961) * ''City Politics'', with James Q. Wilson (1963) * ''American Foreign Aid Doctrines'' (1963) * ''Big City Politics'' (1965) * ''Boston: The Job Ahead'', with Martin Meyerson (1966) * ''The Unheavenly City'' (1970) * ''The Unheavenly City Revisited: A Revision of The Unheavenly City'' (1974, reprinted 2025) * ''The Democratic Muse: Visual Arts and the Public Interest'' (1984) * ''Here the People Rule: Selected Essays'' (1985, reprinted with additional essays in 1991)

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * ''Edward C. Banfield: An Appreciation'' (Henry Salvatori Center, 2002).

==External links== * Edward C. Banfield's books and writings may be downloaded freely and legally from [http://edwardcbanfield.org/ Edward C. Banfield – An Online Resource]. *[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02053.x A Nearly Forgotten Classic Study in Public Administration: Edward C. Banfield's Government Project] Public Administration Review, September/October 2009, vol. 69, issue 5, pp. 993–997. * {{citation|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubjof.a005046|title=Edward Banfield on the Promise of Politics and the Limits of Federalism|journal=Publius: The Journal of Federalism|volume=34|issue=4|pages=139–152|year=2004|last1=Hendrickson|first1=K.}} * {{C-SPAN|2004}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banfield, Edward C.}} [[Category:1916 births]] [[Category:1999 deaths]] [[Category:University of Connecticut alumni]] [[Category:Harvard University faculty]] [[Category:University of Chicago faculty]] [[Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty]] [[Category:People from Bloomfield, Connecticut]] [[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] [[Category:20th-century American political scientists]]