The Tea Party: Roots in the American Tradition

The columnist Chrystia Freeland recently referred to the 1970 book Exit, Voice and Loyalty by the Harvard economist Albert O. Hirshman (The Globe and Mail, August 5). This is an extract from her column.

In 1970, while at Harvard, Mr. Hirschman wrote an influential meditation on how people respond to the decline of firms, organizations and states. He concluded that there are two options: exit – stop shopping at the store, quit your job, leave your country – and voice – speak to the manager, complain to your boss, or join the political opposition.

Mr. Hirschman came up with his theory of exit and voice in the United States, and he believed that exit had been accorded “an extraordinarily privileged position in the American political tradition.” That was partly because the United States was populated by exiters and their descendants – immigrants who chose to leave home rather than reform it – and partly because, for much of American history, the frontier made it possible to choose exit without even leaving the country.

For Americans, that sort of internal exit is no longer an option. Whatever you may think of the political agenda of the Tea Party, or of its wealthy supporters and media facilitators, it is at heart an ardent grassroots movement whose angry and engaged participants have chosen voice over exit or apathy.

But when you look at what they are using that voice to advocate, you may decide that Mr. Hirschman was right after all about the American national romance with exit. The Tea Party’s engaged citizens aren’t so much trying to reform government as to get rid of it – the only possible version of exit when the frontier is gone and you already live in the best country on Earth.