Steps to Instability

The shooting of Governor George Wallace raises fears again about the future of American society. Could the present order reach the point where it is no longer workable? What is that point anyway? In the British magazine Encounter two years ago, U.S. Sociologist Daniel Bell listed seven factors characteristic of modern Western countries that became politically unstable. Two nations that did: Weimar Germany and Fourth Republic France.

One of Bell's signs is the growth of private violence; the attempted assassination of Wallace and the bombing of the Pentagon last week are only the latest events in a decade-long litany. For the rest, anyone who wishes to can easily find American cases to meet Bell's other conditions.

>-"Insoluble" problems: inflation, unemployment, urban decay.

> Parliamentary impasse: Congress and the President stalemated over vital issues.

> Racial conflict: almost anywhere one looks.

> Uneven regional economic development: Appalachia and much of the rural South, still lagging.

> Alienation of the intelligentsia: of course.

> Humiliation in war: trying to avoid just that end is what has kept Richard Nixon busy lately, and the prospect haunted him before he left on his mission to Moscow.

How to stave off instability? The first requisite, Bell concluded, "is intelligent leadership." That, unfortunately, is harder to find than good advice.

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