Social Justice - Tracy Westen

It's early evening in Room 329 on the campus of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication. Although tonight's class on communications policy is meeting for only the second time, its 15 graduate students are already voicing some strong opinions. Elisa Montoya, for example, has decided that she doesn't want to be Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. Instead, she wants to be Justice Thurgood Marshall. Kellie Reagan is expressing her displeasure at having been assigned Senator Barbara Boxer, of California; she'd prefer Senator Ernest Hollings, of South Carolina.

At the front of the room, Tracy Westen, sporting a mop of curly white hair and a big grin, is taking it all in stride. Agent provocateur, Web-based political organizer, former Federal Trade Commission official, and part-time professor at USC, Westen has asked his students to play these real-life politicians in a simulation that he's created to teach how policy is really forged. But now, with the students pushing back, Westen seems downright delighted! This, he seems to be saying, is what healthy democracy is all about. Democracy is based on participation. It's premised on the notion that if people don't like something, they have the right not only to voice their opinions but also to try to change the situation.

Of course, one reason why Westen is enjoying this small scene in his classroom -- a microcosm of the fundamental workings of democracy -- is that when he looks at the political process at work in California or in the United States, he rarely sees democratic principles being put into practice. From his vantage point as founder of the Web-based Democracy Network, Westen can cite chapter and verse to illustrate the elements of modern-day democracy that are misfiring: Special-interest groups use campaign contributions to manipulate the political process, currying favor with candidates and winning unprecedented access to the day-to-day operations of government. Politicians and elected officials have learned how to use attack ads, sound bites, spin control, and out-and-out falsehoods to thwart real dialogue with voters. And, in the process, they have transformed American politics from the heritage of the Lincoln-Douglas debates to the heresy of the Jerry Springer show. For its part, the media seems more interested in grabbing a ringside seat at the latest scandal than in analyzing the nuts-and-bolts issues that genuinely affect voters' lives. And, says Westen, this political miasma has inescapable costs: In the 1998 national election, a mere 36% of the electorate exercised their right to vote -- the lowest turnout in American political history since 1942. What's more, Westen points out, the turnout was even lower among new voters between the ages of 18 and 24 -- a scant 15% to 20% bothered to cast a vote.

"So," says Westen, "not only did we vote at one of the lowest recorded levels ever, but young voters were voting at only one half of the overall rate. That's a very depressing conclusion, because historically, young voters pump new ideas into the system." Throughout his career, Westen has sought to pump his own new ideas into the American political system. From his days as a law student involved in the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s, through his tenure in Washington, DC as deputy director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection during the Carter administration in the late 1970s, to his present involvement as founder and president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies (CGS), Westen has campaigned selflessly and tirelessly for a fairer, more open, and more responsive government.

When Westen founded CGS in 1983, its purpose was to reform campaign-finance laws. Its current mission is equally straightforward: "to enhance the quantity and quality of governmental information available to citizens through the use of modern communications technologies; to expand the opportunities for citizens to participate in elective and governmental processes; to improve the integrity of government decision making; to strengthen government's responsiveness to the public's interests; and, ultimately, to restore public trust in government and the electoral process." For anyone else, pursuing this mission would constitute a full-time job. But for Westen, it is only one facet of a public-service, public-change agenda that has required him to wear many hats: president of the Democracy Network, founder and first vice president of the California Channel, and coauthor of 10 books on campaign finance, ballot initiatives, and judicial and media reform -- plus teaching at USC's Annenberg School and at the UCLA School of Law.