Seymour Martin Lipset

Policemen are attracted to right-wing politics, says Harvard sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset, because they are recruited from the undereducated, typically conservative working class, and because their job inevitably stresses toughness, authority, and a skeptical view of human behavior. Professor Lipset is the author of Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics, and other books.

The ATLANTIChere gives the floor to critics of and commentators on “The Decline of Freedom at Berkeley,” Professor Lewis Feuer’s angry adieu to the University of California in the September issue. Additional reactions, including a final comment by Professor Feuer, will appear in the November ATLANTIC.