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Ernest van den Haag
Ernest van den Haag (September 15, 1914 – March 21, 2002) was a Dutch-born American sociologist, social critic, and author. He was John M. Olin Professor of Jurisprudence and Public Policy at Fordham University. He was best known for his contributions to National Review.
Ernest van den Haag was born in 1914 in the Hague to Moses "Max" Melamerson and Flora Haag Melamerson. He changed his surname in the early 1940s. While van den Haag was still young, his family moved to Italy. Van den Haag grew up in Italy, and following his education began a life in politics. In the late 1930s, he was a left-wing activist and communist. During this time, Italy was ruled by Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. In 1937, van den Haag was nearly murdered by a political assassin who shot him five times. After being shot, he spent nearly three years in prison. Nearly eighteen months of those three years were spent in solitary confinement. After release, fearing re-imprisonment, van den Haag drifted between European countries in an attempt to evade Italy and Mussolini. In 1940, he made his way to Portugal and fled to the United States, arriving at Ellis Island, not knowing any English. Living in New York, van den Haag worked as a bus boy and sold vegetables; eventually he was able to secure admission to the University at Iowa, where a group of faculty members recognized his intellectual gifts and agreed to pay for his tuition. In 1942, van den Haag graduated with an M.A in economics. The same year, van den Haag met the political philosopher Sidney Hook. His friendship with Hook forever changed van den Haag, converting him from being a left-wing activist and communist, to the opposite end of the spectrum; van den Haag was now a conservative. Over the years, van den Haag took particular interest in the field of capital punishment and the death penalty. His book Punishing Criminals: Concerning a Very Old and Painful Question (1975) developed his reputation on being one of the foremost thinkers and proponents on the death penalty. Van den Haag was considered by his colleagues to be an expert on the issue of capital punishment.
Van den Haag died in Mendham, New Jersey.
He was an early opponent of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education which found segregation in schools unconstitutional, and testified in favor of segregation. He also argued that continued school segregation was desirable because of the "genetic intellectual inferiority" of black students. In a National Review cover-page article, van den Haag dismissed recent research undermining the notion of innate ethnic differences in intelligence, stating that he believed such differences existed and accounted for "much" of the poorer academic performance of black students, thus necessitating separate schooling. This article caused controversy among readers of the National Review, several of whom wrote angry letters against the decision to print such "bigotry". In 1966, he testified before the International Court of Justice in support of apartheid in South Africa.
In another article, from 1965, he opposed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which replaced an immigration system largely excluding Asians and discriminating against southern and eastern Europeans with a race-neutral program based on skills and family connections to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, which enabled an increase in immigration from Asia. Van den Haag instead advocated greater rather than less immigration restriction. He also expressly defended the practice of fashioning immigration policies in favor of European ethnicity, arguing that "The wish to preserve... the identity of one's nation requires no justification." He likened such a practice to a harmless expression of sentiment, similar to preferring to associate with one's own family rather than strangers. "The wish not to see one's country overrun by groups one regards as alien need not be based on feelings of superiority or 'racism.'"
Van den Haag's particular field of interest, the field he contributed the most to in terms of publications, was the death penalty, particularly in the context of the capital punishment debate in the United States before and after the Furman v. Georgia ruling in 1972, which (temporarily) abolished capital punishment nationwide. Van den Haag was a respected debater, and when he was not contributing to the National Review or other publications, he was active in debating the issue of the death penalty. His main argument in its defence stemmed from key themes such as deterrence, and retributive punishment for severe criminals. On Firing Line, he joined a programme dedicated to the death penalty debate on December 13, 1976, after the Gregg v. Georgia ruling (but weeks before the resumption of executions with Gary Gilmore, who was a subject of the deterrence argument) and was cited in a previous programme with Truman Capote in 1968, regarding an off-cam argument with regard to the efficiency of the punishment, which Capote challenged.
In his book Punishing Criminals, van den Haag defines the primary role of government as "securing rights and duties by specifying them through laws and enforcing the laws." Van den Haag believed the paramount duty of government is to "provide legal order in which citizens can be secure in their lives, their liberties, and their pursuit of happiness." Van den Haag disputed claims that capital punishment is just a form of legal retribution by claiming that if laws are knowingly broken, legal order can only be maintained by enforcement. Justice, van den Haag claimed, is blindfolded, while retribution carries the weight of passion behind it; justice being delivered to someone who violates social order knowingly is equal, thus the term legal retribution is void.
Van den Haag also argued that people commit crimes because they believe, one way or another, they will benefit from committing the crime. Thus it is society's duty to increase the opportunity cost of all crime. Van den Haag also related Marxist theory behind his justification of the death penalty. Marxists, Van den Haag argued, believe that "Legal justice never can do less, though it can do more." Legal justice should distribute punishment equally among violators and more frequently in order to deter crime. Van den Haag also related to the Marxist belief in class warfare. Van den Haag states, "Obviously, the poor and powerless are more tempted to take what is not theirs, or to rebel, than the powerful and wealthy, who need not take what they already have." The threat of severe punishment diminishes temptation, which van den Haag argued is to be the greatest use of the death penalty, deterrence.
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Ernest van den Haag
Ernest van den Haag (September 15, 1914 – March 21, 2002) was a Dutch-born American sociologist, social critic, and author. He was John M. Olin Professor of Jurisprudence and Public Policy at Fordham University. He was best known for his contributions to National Review.
Ernest van den Haag was born in 1914 in the Hague to Moses "Max" Melamerson and Flora Haag Melamerson. He changed his surname in the early 1940s. While van den Haag was still young, his family moved to Italy. Van den Haag grew up in Italy, and following his education began a life in politics. In the late 1930s, he was a left-wing activist and communist. During this time, Italy was ruled by Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. In 1937, van den Haag was nearly murdered by a political assassin who shot him five times. After being shot, he spent nearly three years in prison. Nearly eighteen months of those three years were spent in solitary confinement. After release, fearing re-imprisonment, van den Haag drifted between European countries in an attempt to evade Italy and Mussolini. In 1940, he made his way to Portugal and fled to the United States, arriving at Ellis Island, not knowing any English. Living in New York, van den Haag worked as a bus boy and sold vegetables; eventually he was able to secure admission to the University at Iowa, where a group of faculty members recognized his intellectual gifts and agreed to pay for his tuition. In 1942, van den Haag graduated with an M.A in economics. The same year, van den Haag met the political philosopher Sidney Hook. His friendship with Hook forever changed van den Haag, converting him from being a left-wing activist and communist, to the opposite end of the spectrum; van den Haag was now a conservative. Over the years, van den Haag took particular interest in the field of capital punishment and the death penalty. His book Punishing Criminals: Concerning a Very Old and Painful Question (1975) developed his reputation on being one of the foremost thinkers and proponents on the death penalty. Van den Haag was considered by his colleagues to be an expert on the issue of capital punishment.
Van den Haag died in Mendham, New Jersey.
He was an early opponent of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education which found segregation in schools unconstitutional, and testified in favor of segregation. He also argued that continued school segregation was desirable because of the "genetic intellectual inferiority" of black students. In a National Review cover-page article, van den Haag dismissed recent research undermining the notion of innate ethnic differences in intelligence, stating that he believed such differences existed and accounted for "much" of the poorer academic performance of black students, thus necessitating separate schooling. This article caused controversy among readers of the National Review, several of whom wrote angry letters against the decision to print such "bigotry". In 1966, he testified before the International Court of Justice in support of apartheid in South Africa.
In another article, from 1965, he opposed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which replaced an immigration system largely excluding Asians and discriminating against southern and eastern Europeans with a race-neutral program based on skills and family connections to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, which enabled an increase in immigration from Asia. Van den Haag instead advocated greater rather than less immigration restriction. He also expressly defended the practice of fashioning immigration policies in favor of European ethnicity, arguing that "The wish to preserve... the identity of one's nation requires no justification." He likened such a practice to a harmless expression of sentiment, similar to preferring to associate with one's own family rather than strangers. "The wish not to see one's country overrun by groups one regards as alien need not be based on feelings of superiority or 'racism.'"
Van den Haag's particular field of interest, the field he contributed the most to in terms of publications, was the death penalty, particularly in the context of the capital punishment debate in the United States before and after the Furman v. Georgia ruling in 1972, which (temporarily) abolished capital punishment nationwide. Van den Haag was a respected debater, and when he was not contributing to the National Review or other publications, he was active in debating the issue of the death penalty. His main argument in its defence stemmed from key themes such as deterrence, and retributive punishment for severe criminals. On Firing Line, he joined a programme dedicated to the death penalty debate on December 13, 1976, after the Gregg v. Georgia ruling (but weeks before the resumption of executions with Gary Gilmore, who was a subject of the deterrence argument) and was cited in a previous programme with Truman Capote in 1968, regarding an off-cam argument with regard to the efficiency of the punishment, which Capote challenged.
In his book Punishing Criminals, van den Haag defines the primary role of government as "securing rights and duties by specifying them through laws and enforcing the laws." Van den Haag believed the paramount duty of government is to "provide legal order in which citizens can be secure in their lives, their liberties, and their pursuit of happiness." Van den Haag disputed claims that capital punishment is just a form of legal retribution by claiming that if laws are knowingly broken, legal order can only be maintained by enforcement. Justice, van den Haag claimed, is blindfolded, while retribution carries the weight of passion behind it; justice being delivered to someone who violates social order knowingly is equal, thus the term legal retribution is void.
Van den Haag also argued that people commit crimes because they believe, one way or another, they will benefit from committing the crime. Thus it is society's duty to increase the opportunity cost of all crime. Van den Haag also related Marxist theory behind his justification of the death penalty. Marxists, Van den Haag argued, believe that "Legal justice never can do less, though it can do more." Legal justice should distribute punishment equally among violators and more frequently in order to deter crime. Van den Haag also related to the Marxist belief in class warfare. Van den Haag states, "Obviously, the poor and powerless are more tempted to take what is not theirs, or to rebel, than the powerful and wealthy, who need not take what they already have." The threat of severe punishment diminishes temptation, which van den Haag argued is to be the greatest use of the death penalty, deterrence.