The essay printed here is the lecture delivered by James Q. Wilson at the annual dinner of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C., on December 4, 1997.

At that dinner, Professor Wilson received AEI’s Francis Boyer Award for 1997—an award established in 1977 by SmithKline Beecham, in memory of its former chief executive officer, to recognize individuals who have made exceptional practical or scholarly contributions to improved government policy and social welfare.

The Boyer Lecture series includes addresses by presidents (Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan), statesmen (Henry Kissinger, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Alan Greenspan), jurists (Robert Bork, Antonin Scalia), and scholars (Thomas Sowell, Irving Kristol, George Will). Many of these lectures have proved to be of lasting intellectual importance; Professor Wilson’s lecture, which was telecast live on C-SPAN and attracted considerable national attention and media commentary, is certain to endure as well. It is published here along with my introduction and tribute at the dinner. The lecture is also being published in the spring 1998 issue of The Public Interest.

James Q. Wilson was born in Denver, Colorado, and raised in Long Beach, California. He served in the United States Navy and earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Redlands and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He was professor of government at Harvard University for twenty-six years (1961– 1987) and professor of management at UCLA for thirteen years (1985–1997).

Professor Wilson’s contributions to contemporary political scholarship and practical policy analysis are unsurpassed in their range and erudition. He is the author or coauthor of fourteen books, most recently Moral Judgment (1997) and The Moral Sense (1993)—a study of the social bases of morality that one reviewer called “the most significant reflection on these matters since Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments.” Among his earlier books are City Politics (with Edward C. Banfield), Thinking about Crime, Political Organizations, Bureaucracy, and Crime and Human Nature (with Richard J. Herrnstein). His American Government, now in its seventh edition (coauthored with John J. DiIulio, Jr.), is the leading college textbook on the subject. He is a frequent contributor to such journals as The Public Interest, Commentary, the New Republic, and the Weekly Standard, as well as to leading social science journals. Many of his essays on morality and human character have been collected in On Character: Essays by James Q. Wilson (1995), published by the AEI Press.

Professor Wilson is a trustee and chairman of the Council of Academic Advisers of the American Enterprise Institute and a director of several corporations and foundations. He has received numerous academic honors and awards, including the American Political Science Association’s James Madison Award for a career of distinguished scholarship.

CHRISTOPHER DEMUTH, President
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

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About James Q. Wilson:

James Q. Wilson (born May 27, 1931) in Denver, Colorado is the Ronald Reagan professor of public policy at Pepperdine University in California, and a professor emeritus at UCLA. From 1961 to 1987 he was a professor of government at Harvard University. He has a Ph.D. (1959) and masters degree (1957) from the University of Chicago and an undergraduate degree from the University of Redlands (1952).

He is a former Chairman of the White House Task Force on Crime (1966), of the National Advisor Commission on Drug Abuse Prevention (1972-73) and a member of the Attorney General's Task Force on Violent Crime (1981), the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1985-90), and the President's Council on Bioethics. He is a former president of the American Political Science Association. He has served on the board of directors for the New England Electric System, Protection One, RAND, and State Farm Mutual Insurance.

He is the chairman of the Council of Academic Advisors of the American Enterprise Institute. Wilson is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and a member of the International Council of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2003.

Writings by James Q. Wilson

    * American Government
    * Bureaucracy (1989)
    * City Politics (1963, with Edward Banfield)
    * Crime and Human Nature (1985, with Richard Herrnstein)
    * The Moral Sense (1993)
    * Political Organizations (1995)
    * Moral Judgment (1997)
    * Thinking About Crime (1983)
    * The Amateur Democrat (1966)
    * Negro Politics (1960)
    * The Investigators (1978)
    * On Character (1991)
    * Varieties of Police Behavior (1968)
    * The Marriage Problem (2002)
    * Watching Fishes: Life and Behavior on Coral Reefs (1985, with Roberta Wilson)

(From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Visit Two Nations AEI's Web Site

While many Americans live in conditions of unparalleled freedom and prosperity, a "second nation"--where illegitimacy, child and drug abuse, violence, criminality, and other social ills proliferate--is growing within.

James Q. Wilson is the chairman of AEI's Council of Academic Advisers.

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