430 Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (1914– )School was relatively nonthreatening. Its goal was to co- opt and convert
elites, not to overthrow them.
Th e New Haven School, in fact, was permeated by a general aura of elit-
ism. It may be noted that democracy was not, per se, a component of the
eightfold scheme. Th is was a refl ection of Lasswell’s frankly elitist outlook.
Human dignity was something that was going to be brought to the masses
by their leaders. It was not something that was expected to emanate from
them. Th is top- down outlook had the interesting eff ect of enabling adher-
ents to the New Haven School to coexist peacefully with the positivists. It
was possible, in the New Haven scheme of things, to grant full respect to
state sovereignty, the sovereign equality of states, and nonintervention,
while at the same time promoting “a universal order of human dignity.”
Still another key feature of the New Haven School was its optimistic aura.
McDougal and Lasswell looked at the world as “a cauldron of aspiration for
a better life on the part of millions of human beings.” It was a philosophy
that was tailor- made for people who were impatient to burst forth from the
classrooms, libraries, archives, and lecture halls— and to set about changing
the world. Th e deadweight of the past meant little to it. Everywhere one
looked, there were decisions to be made, policies to be set, values to be pro-
moted. Once the rationalistic shackles of the pedantic men had been thrown
aside, there seemed no limit to what might be accomplished. Idealism, ac-
tivism, and the spirit of the new, in short, were the grains running deeply
through the wood of the New Haven School.
It may also be observed that the New Haven School was particularly well
placed to fl ourish in the atmosphere of the Cold War. It was resolutely West-
ern and liberal in its stress on human dignity, but able at the same time to es-
chew overt hostility to socialism. Certain aspects of socialism could even be
supported, such as mea sures to promote the welfare of the working classes. In
fact, the New Haven program had much of the spirit of a benevolent bureau-
cratic socialist order, of the kind that H. G. Wells and the Fabian socialists of
Britain had favored. Th e New Haven School may have been fi rmly in the
Western camp in the Cold War, but its technocratic and nonconfrontational
character enabled it to keep well away from the po liti cal front lines. It was, in
other words, a thoroughly Western program without being aggressively parti-
san. It was therefore well equipped to win support across the po liti cal spec-
trum in the West— another sign of its fundamental consensus orientation.