tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/protection-5174/articlesProtection – The Conversation2023-07-17T20:03:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093782023-07-17T20:03:17Z2023-07-17T20:03:17ZHow a secret plan 50 years ago changed Australia’s economy forever, in just one night<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537211/original/file-20230713-19-5w34v3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=183%2C113%2C864%2C525&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At a time when governments are timid, keener to announce <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/productivity/report">reviews</a> than decisions, it’s refreshing to remember what happened 50 years ago today – on July 18 1973.</p>
<p>Inflation had surged to <a href="https://www.datawrapper.de/_/vu9by/">14%</a>. Australia’s biggest customer, the United Kingdom, had joined the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/1/newsid_2459000/2459167.stm">European Economic Community</a>, agreeing to buy products from it rather than Australia. And the newly formed Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries had <a href="https://advisor.visualcapitalist.com/historical-oil-prices/">doubled</a> the price of oil.</p>
<p>The tariffs imposed on imported goods to protect Australian manufacturers from competition were extraordinarily high. For clothing, they reached <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/textile-clothing-footwear-1997/59tcf2.pdf">55%</a>; for motor vehicles, <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1077&context=commwkpapers">45%</a>.</p>
<p>Then, with absolutely <a href="http://andrewleigh.org/pdf/Trade%20liberalisation%20and%20the%20ALP.pdf">no</a> public indication he had been considering anything as drastic, at 7pm on Wednesday July 18, the recently elected prime minister Gough Whitlam made an <a href="https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/original/00002971_0.pdf">announcement</a>.</p>
<h2>Every tariff cut by one quarter overnight</h2>
<p>From midnight, all tariffs would be cut by 25%. As Whitlam put it: “each tariff will be reduced by one quarter of what it is now”.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537215/original/file-20230713-21-4hds6p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537215/original/file-20230713-21-4hds6p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537215/original/file-20230713-21-4hds6p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537215/original/file-20230713-21-4hds6p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537215/original/file-20230713-21-4hds6p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1212&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537215/original/file-20230713-21-4hds6p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1212&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537215/original/file-20230713-21-4hds6p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1212&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/original/00002971_0.pdf">Gough Whitlam's statement</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If Australian businesses (and the Australian public) were caught by surprise, it was because Whitlam had planned the whole thing in secret.</p>
<p>He had given a six-person committee just three weeks to work out the details.</p>
<p>Although the committee was chaired by the head of the Tariff Board, Alf Rattigan, and included an official from Whitlam’s own department, the department of industry and the department of trade, it met in an obscure location in Canberra’s civic centre rather than in public service offices, where the project might be discovered.</p>
<p>Not included in the committee was a representative of the treasury, which its then deputy head John Stone said “<a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2744/Stone__The_Inside_Story_of_Gough%E2%80%99s_Tariff_Cut__in_The_Australian__18_July_2003..pdf">knew nothing</a>” about what was unfolding.</p>
<p>But driving the work of the committee were two academic outsiders – Fred Gruen, an economics professor at the Australian National University and adviser to Whitlam, and Brian Brogan, an economics lecturer at Monash University who was advising the trade minister, Jim Cairns.</p>
<h2>Outsiders, not treasury insiders</h2>
<p>As economists rather than bureaucrats, Gruen and Brogan were able to see benefits where others saw entrenched interests. Going to the tariff board and asking for extra tariffs, whenever it looked as if your prices might be undercut by imports, had become a reflex action for Australian businesses. </p>
<p>In the words of <a href="https://esavic.org.au/385/images/2013_GaryBanks.pdf">Gary Banks</a> – later to become head of the successor to the tariff board, the Productivity Commission: “it was not a shameful thing for a conga line of industrialists to be seen wending its way to Canberra”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/half-a-century-on-its-time-to-reassess-the-whitlam-governments-economic-legacy-195651">Half a century on, it's time to reassess the Whitlam government's economic legacy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Tariffs were good for business owners, although bad for their customers, who had to pay much higher prices and often got <a href="https://www.afr.com/opinion/bill-scales-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-australian-car-manufacturing-industry-20171018-gz3ky4">worse goods</a>. They were also good for government – bringing in tax revenue.</p>
<p>Whitlam was more interested in bringing down inflation. His announcement said increased competition would </p>
<blockquote>
<p>have a salutary effect upon those who have taken advantage of shortages by unjustified price increases which have exploited the public. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Any firm seriously hurt by the extra imports could apply to a newly established tribunal for assistance, but the tribunal </p>
<blockquote>
<p>should not provide relief as a matter of course – that is, simply because the question of relief had been referred to it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So Whitlam offered “rationalisation assistance” to encourage firms to refocus their operations, and “compensation for closure” where that couldn’t be done and production had to cease.</p>
<p>For displaced workers, the 7pm announcement offered anyone who lost their job retraining, as well as</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a weekly amount equal to his [sic] average wage in the previous six months until he obtains or is found suitable alternative employment. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Over the next seven years, manufacturing employment fell by <a href="https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/report_136_CHAPTER_6_WEB_FA.pdf">80,000</a>, but few of those job losses were immediate. Fifteen months after the 25% tariff cut, fewer than <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20634782?seq=10">6,000</a> people had claimed the wage replacement offered on the night of the announcement.</p>
<p>When Whitlam went to the polls a year after the cut in the double dissolution election of May 1974, 122 university economists signed an <a href="https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-3267">open letter</a> of support.</p>
<p>The letter said the general thrust of the government’s policy responses had been in the best interests of the nation as a whole, and added,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>more importantly, we seriously doubt that the previous government would have had the wisdom or the courage to undertake it. It had certainly given no indication of moving in that direction while it was in power, even though the need for such policies had become obvious.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In its later days in office, the Whitlam government was roundly criticised for its irresponsible public spending. Ironically, in its approach to tariffs in the 1970s, it had taken the first steps in a neoliberal direction that characterised western governments of the 1980s.</p>
<p>By acting boldly after decades of inaction, Whitlam showed what a government could do. It was a lesson his Labor successor Bob Hawke took to heart a decade later, when he floated the dollar, revamped Australia’s tax system and put in place a series of further cuts that reduced tariffs to near zero.</p>
<p>It’s something we see less of today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Millmow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Without warning, at 7pm on July 18 1973, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam slashed every single import tariff at once – starting at midnight. It’s the kind of bold political leadership we rarely see today.Alex Millmow, Senior Fellow, Federation University AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1984702023-02-23T13:15:46Z2023-02-23T13:15:46ZSage, sacred to Native Americans, is being used in purification rituals, raising issues of cultural appropriation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511784/original/file-20230222-22-nhg75m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5630%2C3728&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">White sage is being commonly used for purification rituals.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/midsection-of-sage-holding-feather-with-smudge-royalty-free-image/1207222673?phrase=sage%20smudging&adppopup=true">Stevica Mrdja / EyeEm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>White sage, which is sacred to a number of Native American tribes in the southwest United States, has been adopted by both some contemporary Pagans and New Age practitioners <a href="https://religionnews.com/2023/01/12/witches-urge-alternatives-to-sage-amid-concern-about-appropriation-overharvesting/">for purification rites</a>. As Emily McFarlan Miller reported in a recent Religion News Service article, this is resulting in overharvesting and shortages of the plant, making it harder for Native Americans to find enough for their sacred ceremonies. </p>
<p>In her groundbreaking book “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Purity-and-Danger-An-Analysis-of-Concepts-of-Pollution-and-Taboo/Douglas/p/book/9780415289955">Purity and Danger</a>,” anthropologist <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0075.xml">Mary Douglas</a> illustrates how purity and its maintenance are central to religion. It is a way to keep danger at bay as well as provide a way to separate the sacred from the mundane.</p>
<p>As a <a href="http://www.helenaliceberger.com/">sociologist of religion</a> who has studied contemporary Paganism for more than 30 years, I am aware of how important both contact with the spirit world and purification are in this religion. Contemporary Paganism is a set of religions that base their practice on what is known about pre-Christian religions in Europe, mixed with literature, science fiction and personal inspiration.</p>
<p>Within these religions <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">nature is viewed as sacred</a>, to be celebrated and protected. The celebration of nature takes several forms, the most common being a series of rituals that commemorate the changing seasons. Cleansing is a way to provide a safe place to interact with the spirit world, which is always part of Pagan rituals. </p>
<p>Purification can be done using a number of substances, including salt, rosemary and sometimes white sage. When purification includes the use of sage, it raises the issue of appropriation, as it has traditionally been used by Native Americans in their rituals. </p>
<h2>Protection and cleansing</h2>
<p>Pagan rituals take place outdoors, when possible, or sometimes in people’s homes or in occult bookstores. There is no set liturgy that everyone follows, and it is possible for people to create their own rituals. </p>
<p>Because there is no dedicated sanctified place, cleansing and protection become <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Community_of_Witches.html?id=H7p1mwEACAAJ">particularly important within Paganism</a>. More mainstream religions have buildings, such as churches or synagogues, where they maintain sanctuaries for religious purposes only. </p>
<p>Pagans, to the contrary, have ritual areas that must be transformed from mundane to sacred use. Possibly more importantly, rituals are meant to open up the individual to the spiritual or other world. Magic, the process of changing reality to your will through incantations, is done in this realm. </p>
<p>As I learned <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Community_of_Witches.html?id=H7p1mwEACAAJ">when I was doing my research</a>, most Pagans believe entering this realm holds both great possibilities and dangers. The cleansing and purification of the place and the participants are meant to protect them by keeping out unsavory spirits. </p>
<p>Purification can be done in several ways. When I began my research in 1986, it was most commonly done using salt and water. At Pagan ceremonies that I attended as a researcher, those leading the ritual would “cut” a sacred circle. This entailed walking around the circle carrying a ritual knife known as an athame while chanting an incantation that marked the area as a safe place that only the spirits called would enter. They then used salt and water to purify the circle.</p>
<p>In some of the rituals participants were already standing in the circle when this part of the ritual was done; in others they entered afterward. The participants were also purified, with salt, water, smoke from a candle, incense or rosemary and a crystal or rock, symbolizing Mother Earth. </p>
<h2>White sage and cultural appropriation</h2>
<p>Sometimes white sage was used for purification in a ritual. It was used because it was associated with Native American practice. As religious studies scholar <a href="https://www.csuchico.edu/corh/people/faculty/sarah-pike.shtml">Sarah Pike</a> found among contemporary Pagans, cultural borrowing from Native Americans was seen as <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520220867/earthly-bodies-magical-selves">connecting the participants to the spirits</a> that lived in the land around them. </p>
<p>Participants believed they were honoring the first people on the continent by incorporating elements of their spiritual practice. Some of the Pagan practitioners had received training from a Native American teacher. For many contemporary Pagans, Native American spirituality was a practice they wanted to emulate because of its connection to the land, to a spirit world, and because it predates Christianity and is native to the region. As contemporary Pagans often piece together different elements to create their spirituality, for many it seemed natural to include Native American practices. </p>
<p>As Pike notes, in the early 1990s Native Americans from several tribes began to express their rage at what they saw as “cultural strip mining,” the stealing and watering down of their culture and their spirituality, which they described as an extension of colonization that had stripped them of their original lands. The use of sage was not the only cultural artifact that these Native American spokespeople objected to being used by nonnatives. Traditional dress and eagles’ feathers were two other examples of <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520220867/earthly-bodies-magical-selves">commonly appropriated items</a>. </p>
<p>As Pagans pride themselves on being sensitive to practices of diverse cultures, most quickly gave up the use of sage; the use of other Native American artifacts in Pagan practices became less common as well. Those who had been using sage returned to using either salt and water or rosemary for purification. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5542%2C3692&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a sun hat and white t-shirt sitting in a field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5542%2C3692&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman harvesting sage in a field.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/june-2020-saxony-freital-cindy-richter-field-worker-news-photo/1216875633?phrase=sage%20&adppopup=true">Sebastian Kahnert/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The use of sage by non-Native Americans is again becoming more prevalent. I noticed while doing my research in 1986 that white sage was sold at stores catering to the occult. It is now being more widely marketed by stores such as Walmart and Anthropologie. </p>
<p>The market has become larger as aspects of Pagan or New Age practices have seeped into more general practice and the <a href="https://bigthink.com/the-present/modern-paganism/?fbclid=IwAR220aeQVXJjYP3r8eP0xfYsvbWERyb-ZkWt5ZxyIa17co4y9guUdPYuEKg">number of Pagans has increased</a>. It has become common, for example, for younger Americans to <a href="https://religionnews.com/2023/01/12/witches-urge-alternatives-to-sage-amid-concern-about-appropriation-overharvesting/">cleanse their homes of bad spirits</a> with white sage even if they do not identify as Pagans. Added to this, those who are new to Paganism are often unaware of the history of appropriation and are repeating the errors of an earlier generation of Pagans and <a href="https://bigthink.com/the-present/modern-paganism/?fbclid=IwAR220aeQVXJjYP3r8eP0xfYsvbWERyb-ZkWt5ZxyIa17co4y9guUdPYuEKg**">using sage in their rituals</a></p>
<p>Native Americans who normally pick the herb as they need it are complaining that they are unable to find enough for their spiritual needs. Fears have also been raised that overharvesting could result in the plant’s becoming extinct, <a href="https://medium.com/the-reynolds-media-lab/the-current-popularity-of-white-sage-is-causing-its-extinction-on-the-border-of-mexico-and-the-63f9527a8d3a">resulting in the extinction of the animals</a> that are dependent on it as well. </p>
<p>It would be both ironic and sad if in celebrating Mother Earth, Pagans helped to make a sacred herb extinct.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198470/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen A. Berger receives funding from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Association for the Sociology of Religion, and West Chester University.</span></em></p>Native Americans are struggling to find sage for their spiritual practices as the plant is being overharvested for sale to the wider public.Helen A. Berger, Affliated Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1985782023-02-07T13:33:49Z2023-02-07T13:33:49ZLarge numbers of Americans want a strong, rough, anti-democratic leader<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507422/original/file-20230131-12-8h4a1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C8%2C2991%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many Americans, many of them Republicans, seek leaders who would violate basic principles of democracy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TrumpRally/f347757471f444fa94616d07038d354e/photo">AP Photo/Ben Gray</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It might be comforting to think that American democracy has made it past the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. But <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592722003206">our research</a> shows that a wide range of the American people, of all political stripes, seek leaders who are fundamentally anti-democratic.</p>
<p>It’s true that many who participated in the insurrection are facing consequences, including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/16/jensen-qanon-jan6-attack/">prison time</a>. Many candidates for state office who falsely claimed that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/election-deniers-overwhelmingly-lost-battleground-states-rcna57058">lost their races</a>. And the congressional committee investigating the insurrection <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/trump-referrals-jan-6-committee/">voted to refer</a> Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal charges.</p>
<p>But more than 100 members of Congress who <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/insurrection-at-the-capitol/2021/01/07/954380156/here-are-the-republicans-who-objected-to-the-electoral-college-count">objected</a> to the results of a free and fair election won their reelection campaigns. And at least seven people who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 have been elected to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/11/03/least-seven-jan-6-rallygoers-won-public-office-election-day/">state legislatures</a> and two have been elected to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/15/derrick-van-orden-jan-6-congress/">Congress</a>. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oTq7_YIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholars</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Ndefs_gAAAAJ">interested</a> <a href="https://sites.allegheny.edu/politicalsci/faculty/brian-harward/">in</a> how committed citizens are to democracy, we wanted to measure whether regular Americans want someone who will abide by democratic traditions and practices or dispense with them. </p>
<p>Using a nationally representative sample of 1,500 respondents, we found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592722003206">a large proportion of Americans</a> are willing to support leaders who would violate democratic principles. </p>
<p><iframe id="ld8Ly" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ld8Ly/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Support for anti-democratic leaders</h2>
<p>About two decades ago, an important study found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511613722">roughly 1 in 4 Americans</a> supported leaders who are uncompromising and take decisive action. These people said they would also prefer nonelected experts to make decisions. Our study replicates this finding nearly 20 years later but sheds light on a troubling reason for this preference.</p>
<p>At the Allegheny College Center for Political Participation, we, with our former student <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/candaisy-crawford-ab0141112/">Candaisy Crawford</a>, asked people about their willingness to support leaders who promised to protect them by any means necessary, even if that meant violating expected standards of behavior in a democracy, a set of principles often called “democratic norms.” We <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592722003206">developed these questions</a> based on existing research about the strategies that leaders with anti-democratic tendencies use to build public support. </p>
<p>In Venezuela, for instance, democratic decline happened gradually. Early on, Venezuela’s former president Hugo Chavez was known for using <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/populism-in-europe-and-the-americas/populism-and-democracy-in-venezuela-under-hugo-chavez/FA3183273C9744A9A70FE4EBF71EB826">nationalist</a> language and calling opponents epithets like “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/dec/17/alexbellos">rancid oligarchs” and “squealing pigs</a>.” Later, he <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/09/18/decade-under-chavez/political-intolerance-and-lost-opportunities-advancing-human">blacklisted</a> those who sought his removal from office through a democratically conducted referendum. Eventually, he went further, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-amnesty-cases/factbox-jailed-and-exiled-opponents-of-venezuelas-chavez-idUSBRE8B60RU20121207">arresting and exiling</a> his political opponents. </p>
<p>These types of tactics have also been used in <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562246/how-democracies-die-by-steven-levitsky-and-daniel-ziblatt/">other nations</a>, such as Turkey and Hungary, by leaders who rose to power through democratic elections.</p>
<p>In our study, we asked about behaviors that foreshadow the early stages of democratic decline. For example, we asked citizens whether they thought that “the only way our country can solve its current problems is by supporting tough leaders who will crack down on those who undermine American values.” We also asked about explicit violations of democratic principles, like shutting down news organizations and “bending the rules to get things done.”</p>
<p>By design, some of these questions allow citizens to use their own interpretations of actions like “crackdowns” and “bending the rules.” These types of practices can take a number of different specific forms, as the cases of Venezuela, Turkey and Hungary illustrate. Our aim was to determine whether citizens were inclined toward leaders who seek power by promising retribution toward some groups and benefits for others, because this rhetorical strategy is often a precursor to explicit violations of democratic institutions.</p>
<p>Likewise, the phrasing of our questions is designed to allow respondents to rely on their own ideas about the meaning of “American values,” and “people like you.” Our interest was in what people would enable leaders to do to protect their idea of America and the Americans with whom they identify.</p>
<p>We found that people who want this type of protective but anti-democratic style of leadership were by far the most inclined to want leaders who would take uncompromising, decisive action. These people did not merely want their side to win a political competition for power. They were literally willing to say they would “bend the rules” to do it, a clear violation of the democratic ideal that everyone must follow the same rules.</p>
<p>For each item, we found that at least a third of the people we polled agreed or strongly agreed with these subtle or explicit violations of democratic norms. </p>
<p><iframe id="GnY49" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/GnY49/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Across the political spectrum</h2>
<p>Anti-democratic statements are embraced by members of both U.S. parties, but more commonly by Republicans.</p>
<p>For example, around 90% of Republicans would support tough leaders who crack down on groups that “undermine American values” – however the survey respondents define those values. More than half of Democrats take the same position. Perhaps even more notably, nearly half of citizens who strongly support the Republican Party and over a third of those who strongly support the Democratic Party endorse the view that it is acceptable to “bend the rules” for people like themselves to achieve political goals.</p>
<p>This echoes other research that has found Americans, on both sides of the political aisle, are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000052">willing to sacrifice</a> democratic principles and practices if it means their political party wins elections.</p>
<h2>An appetite for protection</h2>
<p>The key to understanding these views, we believe, is <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-securitarian-personality-9780190096489?cc=us&lang=en&">a desire for protection</a>.</p>
<p>Many Americans view those in the other party as existential <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/pp-2014-06-12-polarization-0-02/">threats to the country</a> – and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/08/09/as-partisan-hostility-grows-signs-of-frustration-with-the-two-party-system/">closed-minded, dishonest, immoral and unintelligent</a> too. All this coexists with growing evidence that more people are willing to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-divided-america-including-the-15-who-are-maga-republicans-splits-on-qanon-racism-and-armed-patrols-at-polling-places-193378">support political violence</a> under <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo163195227.html">certain circumstances</a>.</p>
<p>Many citizens prefer leaders who are willing to undermine democracy if it means protecting people like themselves from groups that threaten their values or status. Although most Americans do not subscribe to these beliefs, a substantial portion of the country does. </p>
<p>Leaders who actively promise anti-democratic action may come and go, but we fear the appetite of many Americans for such actions may always be a persistent threat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198578/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tarah Williams receives funding from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) as a Public Fellow.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Bloeser and Brian Harward do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A large proportion of Americans is willing to support leaders who would violate democratic principles.Tarah Williams, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Allegheny CollegeAndrew Bloeser, Associate Professor of Political Science; Director, Center for Political Participation, Allegheny CollegeBrian Harward, Professor of Political Science, Allegheny CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1839652022-06-02T12:16:00Z2022-06-02T12:16:00Z5 ways to reduce school shootings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466681/original/file-20220601-48537-yx23wp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C12%2C2032%2C1345&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Restrictive gun laws bring down the murder rate.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-attend-a-candlelight-vigil-in-uvalde-texas-united-news-photo/1241011278?adppopup=true">Anadolu Agency / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>After the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, psychology professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=70eLrWwAAAAJ">Paul Boxer</a> and his colleagues reviewed research to see what could be learned from what they refer to as the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21766">science of violence prevention</a>.” In the wake of the May 24, 2022, massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Boxer has revisited that research anew – and other research conducted since then – for insights on what can be done to reduce the risk of school shootings in the future. Here he offers five policy changes – based on his findings – that can be implemented to achieve that end.</em></p>
<h2>1. Dramatically limit access to guns</h2>
<p>Gun regulation matters.</p>
<p>When my colleagues and I looked at gun regulations on a state-by-state basis, we found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdab047">more restrictive gun laws are associated with lower rates of homicides by guns</a>. </p>
<p>This relation held even after we took demographic, economic and educational factors into account. Others researchers have found that “permissive firearm laws and higher rates of gun ownership” were linked with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2021.2018332">higher rates of school shootings</a>. </p>
<p>What these results essentially mean is that in states where it is more difficult to acquire a gun, fewer people are killed by guns. Examples of these restrictions are raising the age for legal purchase, imposing lengthy waiting periods before access, requiring meaningful background checks, and more. These and similar measures – for example, eliminating access for individuals at a high risk of committing violence, such as the perpetrators of domestic violence – all move toward making it significantly harder to access guns, which would reduce gun violence substantially.</p>
<p>Placing meaningful restrictions or outright bans on firearm equipment associated with greater lethality, such as assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines, should also lower the number of people being killed by firearms. Research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106599">already has shown</a> that greater access to guns is associated with higher numbers of gun deaths.</p>
<h2>2. Use more violence risk assessments in schools</h2>
<p>In the years since the Columbine shooting in 1999, researchers and federal law enforcement agencies have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.1007">studied school shootings</a> and developed <a href="https://doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Ftam0000038">risk assessments</a> to gauge the likelihood of actual violence by a young person identified as a possible risk.</p>
<p>These assessments are conducted by professionals that include police officers, school officials and teachers. They also involve mental health professionals, such as school counselors and psychologists. Together, these professionals all consult with one another to determine a young person’s risk for violence.</p>
<p>These teams may not be able to prevent every possible incident. Still, this sort of approach is critical to improving the process of identifying and stopping potential shooters overall. Guidance on how to use these assessments is <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/making-prevention-a-reality.pdf/view">freely available</a> and based in extensive applied research. For example, in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/tam0000038">one 2015 study</a>, the <a href="https://dev.curry.virginia.edu/faculty-research/centers-labs-projects/research-labs/youth-violence-project/virginia-student-threat">Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines</a> – a set of guidelines for the investigation of a reported threat, thorough assessment of the individual making the threat, and preventive or protective measures to be taken in response – were shown to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/tam0000038">reduce rates of student aggression</a>. They were also shown to lower out-of-school suspension rates while improving teacher and student perceptions of safety. </p>
<h2>3. Expand evidence-based strategies to reduce violent behavior</h2>
<p>To help reduce the number of youths who grow up to become violent, governmental agencies could increase the availability and use of evidence-based interventions in schools. </p>
<p>Aggressive and violent behavior has been shown by research to emerge from a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01233.x">mix of personal and environmental risk factors</a>. The factors include impulsivity, callousness, exposure to violence and victimization. </p>
<p>In light of this research, effective approaches were developed to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-013-9576-4">prevent</a> aggression by teaching students to problem-solve for better responses to peer conflict. They also teach students to think carefully about others’ motivations when they feel provoked.</p>
<p>Programs shown to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.72.4.571">reduce</a> aggressive behavior typically train youths who already have exhibited some aggression on new and better coping skills for managing stress and anger. And for youths who have become seriously violent, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.73.3.445">treatments</a> teach new, constructive behavioral and communication skills to youths and their caregivers. The treatments also help young people develop better relationships with family members and school personnel.</p>
<h2>4. Make school buildings safer</h2>
<p>The Robb Elementary School shooter entered the school building through a door that reportedly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/31/uvalde-teacher-door-closed/">malfunctioned</a>. This highlights the absolute importance for schools to take and maintain physical security measures.</p>
<p>In the wake of school shootings, schools often turn to solutions such as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/30/1102035766/u-s-schools-increase-security-after-uvalde-shooting-texas">upgraded camera surveillance or increased law enforcement</a>. </p>
<p>These measures can have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.06.008">mixed effects</a> on students’ perceptions of safety and support – cameras posted outside appear to increase felt safety, whereas cameras posted inside seem to promote unease. </p>
<p>Increased law enforcement presence might make <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2020.1844547">teachers feel safer</a> in school. But it also might <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12512">criminalize student misbehavior</a> without <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2020.1846458">actually making schools safer</a>.</p>
<p>Still, there are number of ways for schools to <a href="https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.88.10614">improve physical security</a> without increasing student anxiety or needlessly deploying law enforcement. For example, in one large study, students were less likely to skip school because of safety concerns when metal detectors were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904816673735">used at school entry points</a>. In that study, those metal detectors also reduced the likelihood of weapons being brought into schools.</p>
<h2>5. Reduce exposure to violence through media and social media</h2>
<p>Entertainment media and social media are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.1">saturated with violent images</a> of physical assaults, gun violence and gore. Exposure to and participation in virtual violence might not lead to aggressive behavior for all children and adolescents. But watching violent programs and playing violent video games can lead to increased <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21655">hostility</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21427">aggressive feelings</a>, emotional <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021711">desensitization to violence</a> and ultimately <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.160.4.348">aggressive behavior</a>. These effects can potentially be lessened by reducing the amount of screen violence to which children and adolescents are exposed over time, particularly early in development.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Boxer receives funding from the Centers for Disease Control. </span></em></p>Risk assessments and rigid gun laws are among the tools that can help prevent school massacres, a specialist in youth aggression says.Paul Boxer, Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1805322022-04-27T12:19:56Z2022-04-27T12:19:56ZRevisiting Will Smith’s slap and what it means to protect a loved one<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459147/original/file-20220421-12-s2e9dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will Smith accepts an Oscar during the 94th Annual Academy Awards.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/will-smith-accepts-the-actor-in-a-leading-role-award-for-news-photo/1388090285?adppopup=true">Neilson Barnard/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It took less than a nanosecond before The Slap was seen around the world. It took a little longer – about two weeks – before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to ban Will Smith from appearing at another Oscar awards ceremony. </p>
<p>But missing from the frenzy that consumed social media and mainstream channels about that infamous night has been a constructive discussion about the idea of protection – and how race plays a role in the perceptions of both the protectors and the protected. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://political-science.williams.edu/profile/nr2/">a scholar</a> of African American culture, philosophy and history, I believe the The Slap invites us to reassess the power of relations between partners and spouses. It also highlights the precarious lives of Black girls and women as a result of failures to protect them. </p>
<h2>The nature of protection</h2>
<p>Most people agree that “protection” means defense of someone or something from harm. </p>
<p>The way parents strive to defend their children against harm is a type of protection.</p>
<p>So too are actions at the heart of the origins of American <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300406/gang-leader-for-a-day-by-sudhir-venkatesh/">street gangs</a>, formed initially by people whom the state abandoned and left defenseless from harm’s way. This, admittedly, is an aspect of American history often forgotten or unfamiliar to the general public.</p>
<p>“To gangbang (v.),” <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631494949">writes</a> Harvard University’s <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/danielleallen/home">Danielle Allen</a>, is “to protect ‘your’ turf and use your power to prey on the vulnerable in order to make a profit and support those ‘whom you call your own.’” </p>
<p>The Slap represents a third genre of protection: men declaring themselves their spouse’s protector.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Black woman with short hair wears a gold dress with a long flowing cape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459165/original/file-20220421-11-9ttnsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459165/original/file-20220421-11-9ttnsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459165/original/file-20220421-11-9ttnsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459165/original/file-20220421-11-9ttnsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459165/original/file-20220421-11-9ttnsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459165/original/file-20220421-11-9ttnsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459165/original/file-20220421-11-9ttnsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jada Pinkett Smith attends the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar party.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jada-pinkett-smith-attends-the-2022-vanity-fair-oscar-party-news-photo/1389153283?adppopup=true">Karwai Tang/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/06/060802.young.shtml">Iris Marion Young</a>, the late feminist philosopher and scholar of democracy, wrote a provocative essay titled “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/375708?seq=1">The Logic of Masculinist Protection</a>.” </p>
<p>Powerful men, she wrote, often justify their expressions of all-encompassing, paternalistic authority as acts to protect women and kids from predators that, if left unchecked, would belittle, disrespect and, at worst, destroy those children and women.</p>
<p>Young maintained that a male protector presents himself to be a “courageous, responsible, and virtuous man.”</p>
<p>“The ‘good’ man,” she continued, “is one who keeps vigilant watch over the safety of his family and readily risks himself in the face of threats from the outside in order to protect the subordinate members of his household.” </p>
<p>This logic collapses, though, when the protector’s vision of the family and its needs doesn’t mirror reality.</p>
<h2>A calling from God</h2>
<p>Is chivalry dead or not worth saving?</p>
<p>Clearly, Smith believes that chivalry is not dead and is worth saving. Born in the medieval era that ended in the 1400s, chivalry is the romanticized dream of a knight in shining armor rescuing a damsel in distress.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A well-dressed Black man slaps another well-dressed Black man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459151/original/file-20220421-26-j4wper.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459151/original/file-20220421-26-j4wper.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459151/original/file-20220421-26-j4wper.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459151/original/file-20220421-26-j4wper.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459151/original/file-20220421-26-j4wper.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459151/original/file-20220421-26-j4wper.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459151/original/file-20220421-26-j4wper.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will Smith slaps Chris Rock onstage during the 94th annual Academy Awards on March 27, 2022, in Los Angeles, Calif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/will-smith-appears-to-slap-chris-rock-onstage-during-the-news-photo/1388085444?adppopup=true">Neilson Barnard/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The damsel in this case was <a href="https://www.jadapinkettsmith.com/">Jada Pinkett Smith</a>, and jokes about her nearly bald head by Chris Rock were not funny but instead tone-deaf, given her struggle with <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-alopecia-its-no-laughing-matter-for-millions-of-black-american-women-180213">alopecia</a>. The condition is known to cause hair loss. </p>
<p>A clue as to why <a href="https://willthebook.com/">Will Smith</a> chose openhanded violence against <a href="http://chrisrock.com/">Chris Rock</a> in the name of his wife lies in the opening to his Oscars best actor acceptance <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-oscars-will-smith-speech-transcript-d952fa3eef9a25cb3149c01985fd3537">speech</a>.</p>
<p>In the film “<a href="https://www.kingrichardfilm.net/">King Richard</a>,” Smith played the role of Richard Williams, the father of professional tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. </p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Smith said that Williams often had to defend his daughters – as Smith explained he had to do during the course of shooting the movie to protect his co-stars: Aunjanue Ellis, Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton. </p>
<p>Smith then described a calling from God.</p>
<p>“In this time in my life,” Smith explained, “in this moment, I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world … I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people.”</p>
<h2>Who watches the protector?</h2>
<p>In the Smith case, it appears that people who are objects of protection don’t always have a say in the actions of their declared protectors. </p>
<p>When Smith heard Rock’s supposed joke, he looked at his wife, walked up and delivered The Slap, sat back down and then twice screamed an obscenity at Rock.</p>
<p>Indeed, one’s role as a protector doesn’t mean one’s intentions are driven by love, chivalry or support.</p>
<p>In my view, what Jada needed most from her husband – as do all humans – was support and love, not misguided male protection enacted under the guise of love.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180532/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Roberts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By slapping Chris Rock during an internationally televised awards ceremony, Will Smith demonstrated that chivalry is not dead. But was that the protection Jada Pinckett Smith wanted or needed?Neil Roberts, Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science, Williams CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1275222019-12-24T21:49:50Z2019-12-24T21:49:50ZProtecting Australian women from American jazz: the hidden aim of the 1927 tariff inquiry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304525/original/file-20191130-156099-x0zwvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4845%2C1066%2C9618%2C5233&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'For the sake of the husbands, wouldn't it be better if these records were kept out of Australia?' </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 1927 Tariff Board inquiry into the import duty on gramophone records coming into Australia was about more than industry protection. </p>
<p>In fact the piano roll industry, which might be expected to be the one most concerned about the impact of imported records, wasn’t particularly worried. </p>
<p>But others were. </p>
<p>In the 1927 Tariff Board inquiry, a small group of wealthy white men laid bare their prejudices regarding the gender, class and aesthetic tastes of the Australian public. </p>
<p>The bottom line: the Australian consumer, typically regarded as female, could not be trusted with mass culture. </p>
<p>American jazz music was an agent of cultural and musical decline. It certainly didn’t live up to the standards of the musical establishment. It belonged to the modern department store, that emerging site of consumerism and commercialisation.</p>
<h2>Australia was awash with recorded music</h2>
<p>By 1925, mechanically-reproduced music was ubiquitous. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304526/original/file-20191130-156077-1c3ebw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304526/original/file-20191130-156077-1c3ebw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304526/original/file-20191130-156077-1c3ebw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1124&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304526/original/file-20191130-156077-1c3ebw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1124&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304526/original/file-20191130-156077-1c3ebw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1124&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304526/original/file-20191130-156077-1c3ebw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1412&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304526/original/file-20191130-156077-1c3ebw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304526/original/file-20191130-156077-1c3ebw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1412&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The local trade estimated that more than one million gramophones had been sold in Australia. That’s roughly one for every three households. </p>
<p>To walk down the street was to navigate a diverse and complex soundscape, completely different to a generation earlier. </p>
<p>Soldier-settlers doing it tough on the land, glitzy bohemians in city dancehalls, working families flocking to the expanding suburbs, Aboriginal people resisting colonialism on missions and reserves — the gramophone was ubiquitous. </p>
<p>A common sight on the streets of Melbourne was Amy Williams, a widowed mother who busked with her gramophone on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral. </p>
<p>She became a cause celebre in 1927. I told her story in a <a href="http://mymarvellousmelbourne.net.au/?p=275">recent podcast</a>.</p>
<p>Australia was host to a bustling and nationally-integrated recording trade.</p>
<p>By 1927, the country boasted four state-of-the-art record factories. They were owned by the biggest players in the global industry: the multinationals HMV, Columbia, Brunswick and Vocalion. </p>
<p>Their products were sold by a nationwide network of record dealers. Some 70% of the records sold in Australia were manufactured in Australia. </p>
<h2>‘Men, money and markets’</h2>
<p>Politically, those years were defined by conservative government and a focus on national reinvigoration after the horrors of war. The catchcry was “men, money and markets”.</p>
<p>“Men” referred to the need for increased migration to provide workers, “money” to the funds that would be needed to finance development, and “markets” to the countries that would have to be persuaded to buy Australia’s exports, especially minerals, wool and wheat.</p>
<p>It was an environment in which business elites took on the role of tastemakers. </p>
<p>Australia’s 1920s were anything but cocktails and the Charleston — our jazz age was muted. The depression lay around the corner. It was an anxious and uncertain time, and society was deeply riven along lines of gender, race and class. </p>
<p>And developments overseas were worrying Australian gramophone executives.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304534/original/file-20191130-156116-1sattxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304534/original/file-20191130-156116-1sattxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304534/original/file-20191130-156116-1sattxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304534/original/file-20191130-156116-1sattxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304534/original/file-20191130-156116-1sattxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304534/original/file-20191130-156116-1sattxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304534/original/file-20191130-156116-1sattxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304534/original/file-20191130-156116-1sattxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Melbourne Argus, December 19, 1927.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3896978">Trove</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new process of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sound_recording#The_Electrical_Era_(1925_to_1945)_(including_sound_on_film)">electrical recording</a> had led to an explosion in variety. </p>
<p>A cacophony of new voices entered the global recording trade, selling modern music for seriously cheap prices. </p>
<p>In response, the major manufacturers successfully petitioned the Tariff Board for an increase in the import tariff on gramophone records. The entire gramophone fraternity gathered to stress its national importance. </p>
<p>The transcripts of the Tariff Board inquiry read like a courtroom drama.</p>
<p>The Board was made up of prominent businessmen tasked with advising on industry protection. </p>
<p>In reading the transcripts I discovered they had strong aesthetic opinions too.</p>
<h2>Protecting morals through music</h2>
<p>Board member <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/brookes-herbert-robinson-5372">Herbert Brookes</a> asked the manufacturers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Are you afraid that to allow these cheap records in is going to deprave the musical taste of the people?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Brookes wanted records to be expensive enough not to lower musical taste, but not so expensive that they might “put up the price of classical music, such as Beethoven symphonies”.</p>
<p>A record retailer presented him with this deeply sexist scenario: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A woman goes into a shop to buy dish clothes or towels, and she sees these records, and sees that they are cheap, and wastes her husband’s money by buying them although she really does not want them. That is how half of these cheap American records are sold.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Brookes interjected:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For the sake of the husbands, wouldn’t it be better if these records were kept out’ of Australia? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The implication was that the typical (female) consumer had only a shallow and passive relationship to music. She needed guidance from elites. </p>
<p>A music seller at the flashy Myer Emporium on Melbourne’s Bourke Street claimed there were “two distinct classes of people buying records” at his store:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One is the regular record buyer at four shillings and better prices … the better class of music, and the other class is the one who wants and will buy only a cheap record.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In case the distinctions weren’t clear enough, he said the two “classes” of records at Myer were physically segregated by a glass partition, so that genteel shoppers wouldn’t be corrupted by rambunctious jazz lovers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-history-of-jazz-51729">Explainer: the history of jazz</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Ultimately, the Tariff Board inquiry was a foregone conclusion. The tariff increase was carried into law in early 1928, and imports of records plummeted. The big four manufacturers further entrenched their hold on the Australian market. </p>
<p>But people still listened to jazz in their thousands. </p>
<p>The Tariff Board became the Industries Assistance Commission, which became the Industry Commission, which became the Productivity Commission. Its inquiries and the work of other official agencies might also reflect cultural assumptions. They’re easier to see from a distance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127522/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry Reese does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Tariff Board was told that if women could buy music that was cheap they would buy music that was dirty.Henry Reese, Research Assistant, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.