CRISIS-INDUCED LOSSES OF LIBERTIES

Michael Barone thinks that, this time, war will not give rise to
significant increases in the size and scope of government ("Not a Victory
for Big Government," editorial page, Jan. 15), because the war on terrorism
does not require the massive spending and comprehensive economic controls
of World War II, and because the voters continue, at least in certain
polls, to favor smaller government in the abstract.

Having studied this topic for a long time and written a book on it ("Crisis
and Leviathan," Oxford University Press, 1987), I am not convinced that the
present crisis will differ from the previous ones, all of which, from World
War I through the civil rights/Vietnam War episode, did cause a permanent
upsurge of government.

Because the war on terrorism has just begun, it is too soon to conclude
that the pattern that held throughout the 20th century has been broken. If
the government decides to wage a full-scale war against Iraq, as a number
of high-level officials and advisers are urging, or if it sends forces to
fight on a front stretching from Africa to Indonesia to the Philippines,
then the size and scope of government will certainly grow.

Already, however, the government has grown in significant ways. Especially
important are the greatly enhanced powers the government has assumed to spy
on and seize the property of all Americans. Several parts of the USA
Patriot Act bulk up the Big Brother State, from sneak-and-peak provisions
to asset-confiscation measures ostensibly aimed at abating money laundering
- -- the latter premised on evidence inadmissible in U.S. courts.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has reactivated the FBI's notorious
Cointelpro operation used from 1957 to 1971 to spy on domestic political
and religious organizations. A number of states are considering the
enactment of emergency laws that would give their governors Draconian
powers over persons, property and personal information.

As such measures continue to augment the government's powers at all levels,
the population remains in large part insensitive to the threats those
measures pose to liberty, not just now but in all likelihood for many years
to come. Pollster John Zogby declared recently that "the willingness to
give up personal liberties is stunning, because the level of fear is so
high." We can only hope that people regain their composure and their sense
of proportion before the ratchet turns once again and our liberties sustain
another irreversible crisis-induced loss.