[David Post, December 20, 2008 at 9:44am] Trackbacks
Today's Quote:

On an interview broadcast on NPR this morning, Willard Wirtz — Secretary of Labor in JFK's administration — called cabinet meetings "part of the Kabuki dance of democracy." That is a great line, eh? It perfectly captures something about a bunch of institutions and arrangements — carefully orchestrated, just "for show." But it doesn't connote worthlessness; Kabuki can be very beautiful, and the Kabuki dance of democracy can be important and valuable. Any suggestions for other things that belong in the category? [My nominations: the Electoral College [the actual meeting of "the college," not the actual practice of voting on a state-by-state basis, which actually matters], the Congressional Record, . . .]

Randy R. (mail):
Reade Jane Jacobs "Systems of Survival" and you will not be surprised about comments like that. David's comment: "But it doesn't connote worthlessness" is absolutely spot on. Indeed, it has a very important function.

In fact, much of what a head of state does is exactly like Kabuki. There is ceremony and ostentatiousness, among other qualities, that every leader must exhibit.
12.20.2008 9:51am
BZ (mail):
I thought the best example of the effect of symbolism in such circumstances was delivered from the hatch of a tank: Michael Dukakis. Symbols matter.
12.20.2008 9:57am
Sk (mail):
The most incomprehensible kabuki dance to me is the daily briefing from the President's press secretary to the Washington Press Corps. They insult him and try to trip him up: he attempts to rebut their insults in a non-newsworthy but nonetheless dignified way, all the time attempting to not get caught in a contradiction that they can grasp on to.

All for what? He's just the press secretary. Whether they catch him up or don't catch him up, he's just the messenger.
Catching him in a slip up is not catching the President in a slip up, or catching US policy in a slip up. It has the potential to be occassionally entertaining, but I really can't tell the ultimate purpose of the daily process.

Sk
Sk
12.20.2008 10:26am
therut (mail):
Judicial dicta.
12.20.2008 10:29am
PersonFromPorlock:
The problem being that Kabuki is pretty much unknown here in America, making the metaphore a bit precious. There is a term in very limited use, "Kabuki speakers," that refers to hifi loudspeakers designed to impress the gullible customer with their looks even at the cost of not working very well. Not a bad metaphore for democracy-as-it-happens either, when you think about it.
12.20.2008 10:32am
subpatre (mail):
"Cabinet meetings are part of the kabuki dance of a democracy; nothing is ever done there, nor can anything be done when 30 people gather in a room for an hour and a half; but the country reputedly sleeps better at night if there's a story in the paper that the cabinet considered something at a meeting that day. The sessions get dull, tedious, and tiresome." —Bill Wirtz, in Arbitration, 1992
Interestingly to Sk, in the same speech Wirtz says

"Another important characteristic of the 1960s would require a speech in itself, so I'll only mention it. In the 1960s the media had not yet gone into the garbage collection business. That made a whale of a difference in trying to run a government."

Too true.
12.20.2008 11:14am
David Warner:
Randy and BZ are right on the mark.

"I thought the best example of the effect of symbolism in such circumstances was delivered from the hatch of a tank: Michael Dukakis. Symbols matter."

Dukakis and W. are two of the most decent men to have run for the Presidency. Unfortunately for them, and in W.'s case, us, mere decency ranks very low in the rank of symbols human beings look for in a head of state.

The values of State and Christ (or Christ's antecedents and descendants) are not always compatible, as Christ or Machiavelli could tell you.
12.20.2008 11:25am
Dave N (mail):
How often do modern Presidents actually have Cabinet Meetings in the sense we think of them: all of the Secretaries sitting around a big table and hashing out policy?

I know that each new Administration has a ceremonial one very early on to get a group picture--but actual policy meetings involving everyone? I think those are very, very rare.

That said, Randy R's comment was right on the mark.
12.20.2008 12:19pm
Eli Rabett (www):
Sk: She

But seriously the issue is respect. When you are peddling trash. . .
12.20.2008 12:22pm
Debauched Sloth (mail):
How about legislative hearings? Legislators go through the motions of receiving public input, listening to witnesses, debating alternatives, etc., as if their votes were really going to be influenced by their understanding of the issues instead of intructions from party leadership, logrolling, constitutent service, etc.

This becomes a problem when judges treat the Kabuki dance of democracy as if it were real. This leads, for example, to the kind of dreck we see in Justice Stevens' Kelo opinion, where he tries to justify the Court's inaction by portraying New London-style land grabs as the products of truly democratic processes rather than the backroom political deals they typically are. The fact that legislatures and city councils go through the motions of deliberation does not mean they are actually deliberating. Basing an entire judicial philosophy -- minimalism -- on the notion that the Kabuki dance of democracy represents the reality of it seems rather naive.
12.20.2008 12:37pm
merevaudevillian:
The Supreme Court's "conservative" "alliance" (from the New York Times, June 28, 2007):

The conservative alliance at the court may be fractious but not fragile, strong enough to withstand Justice Scalia’s “tweaking and needling,” as Prof. Richard W. Garnett of Notre Dame Law School describes it.

“I look at it as a bit of a kabuki dance,” said Professor Garnett, who clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist and is close to the court’s conservatives. He said he had no doubt that Justice Scalia had “huge respect for the new chief as a person and as a lawyer.”

What is visible now, he said, is the latest iteration of the endless struggle between the need for stability in the law and the desire to correct previous mistakes.

“Different people who call themselves conservatives resolve that tension in different ways,” Professor Garnett said, adding that Justice Scalia was “laying down markers, making sure the arguments are out there to be used in later cases.”
12.20.2008 1:39pm
BRM:
Kabuki is traditionally recognized as performed only by men. My meager research suggests that it was perhaps invented by a woman and that some women do it today, but that in general it is men only and has been that way for hundreds of years. I think the term conveys sexist undertones, even though I doubt American speakers realize it.
12.20.2008 1:44pm
trad and anon (mail):
How often do modern Presidents actually have Cabinet Meetings in the sense we think of them: all of the Secretaries sitting around a big table and hashing out policy?

I know that each new Administration has a ceremonial one very early on to get a group picture--but actual policy meetings involving everyone? I think those are very, very rare.
Who attends Cabinet meetings? The Secretaries of third-rate departments (Transportation, Education) and a few random people with Cabinet-level rank (Director of National Drug Control Policy, United States Trade Representative). Of course nothing gets done.
12.20.2008 2:31pm
Frater Plotter:
Why kabuki? Why is it necessary to draw a symbol from a foreign culture to say "something beautiful but made up"?

Why not the symphony of democracy, or the ballet of democracy, or the Broadway musical of democracy?

Is using kabuki in this context just another example of the "Asian inscrutability" or "exoticism" stereotype -- that if something is Asian, then it must be weird but wonderful?

You know, the more I think about it, the more that "Broadway musical of democracy" strikes me as a better and better metaphor. Maybe it's just living in California ....
12.20.2008 2:50pm
dearieme:
But which musical? Carousel? Kiss me Hillary?
12.20.2008 3:30pm
Fub:
Frater Plotter wrote at 12.20.2008 2:50pm:
Why kabuki? Why is it necessary to draw a symbol from a foreign culture to say "something beautiful but made up"?

Why not the symphony of democracy, or the ballet of democracy, or the Broadway musical of democracy?
Kabuki became the metaphor because of its particularly stylized conventions, masks, posturings, setpiece characters and such.

"Broadway musical", "symphony" and "ballet" just don't quite evoke such particularized conventions. Maybe the tapdance of democracy, or the old soft shoe song and dance of democracy would evoke more particulars.

For grand press conferences announcing "nonpartisan" solutions to the crisis du jour, maybe Busby Berkeley finale of democracy would be fitting.
12.20.2008 4:33pm
David Tomlin (mail):

Do Kabuki players wear masks? I thought they just use heavy makeup that makes them look as if they were masked.
12.20.2008 6:16pm
mariner:
Elections.
12.20.2008 6:52pm
one of many:
Tomlin,

as I understand it, generally Kabuki players use make-up and not masks. It is the Noh actors who use the masks (are the two are related, is Kabuki is a form of Noh?).

The fact is that while Ballet or Opera would come closest as recognizable Western terms to Kabuki, they have different connotations. Better (connotation wise) would be comedy-of-manners, but that's a less recognized term than Kabuki.
12.20.2008 11:21pm
BZ (mail):
Just FYI, Pomona College in Claremont, California, has had a long tradition of Kabuki (and Noh) outreach across the country. Wiki Leonard Pronko.
12.21.2008 9:53am
Dave N (mail):
Trad and Anon,

You made my point. The concept of a "cabinet meeting" is as archaic as the horse and buggy.
12.21.2008 10:12pm

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