I had Ted and Philippe [Schmitter; European University Institute, Florence, Italy] come and teach a summer school [session], under the flag of convenience title “Governance in the 21st Century.” (Ted had done a similar gig in 2002, with myself as the support act). It was a lively course, with Ted and Philippe tag teaming, and myself attempting what proved challenging -- moderating the discussion. Ted was at his mischievous best, continually representing Philippe (undoubtedly the leading scholar of Corporatism) as actually advocating Corporatism – by not being sufficiently dismissive of it. The students loved [it]. We heard some feedback from someone one Saturday soon after, down at the [Hobart] Markets, who said he had a friend who had done the course. When asked what the course was about, [his friend] had it described as “two Americans arguing” – although that sells rather short Philippe’s cosmopolitan origins.
Ted had introduced Philippe to me a decade earlier in Charleston, SC, when I went to the meeting of the European Community Studies Association. (I was beginning to get interested in interest representation beyond the nation state, and some of the ECSA folks seemed to be among the few publishing on this). Ted and Angèle had always wanted to see Charleston, so took the opportunity to fly down for the weekend.
Ted came to a couple of sessions with me on the Saturday morning, and was immediately surrounded by members of his fan club – mostly newly-minted PhDs, distinguishable by both their youth and being the only ones earnest enough to be wearing suits and ties on a Saturday morning in Charleston. We had a great dinner, where [my wife] Julie and I met Philippe, but my outstanding memory of the visit related to Ted and Angèle’s sightseeing.
They decided to take to tour of the peninsula down to the Battery and view out to Fort Sumter by horse-drawn carriage. Julie and I were old Charleston hands, so passed on this. Angèle reported back afterwards that Ted had grown so bored with the slowly-pace clip-clop back in time, he disembarked and walked instead! Of course, we joined Angèle in piling on the opprobrium – but you had to love him!
Aynsley Kellow
Professor of Government, Emeritus
University of Tasmania
Comments