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Capitol View
The worst part of the latest book on Hawaii's peculiar form of government is the cover. Get past it and Richard Pratt's exploration of "Hawaii Politics and Government" is just the book to explain Hawaii moving into the 21st century. Old thinking mires
Hawaii in the pastCouple it with Dan Boylan's "John A. Burns: The Man and His Times," and you have a fine brace of books for summer reading. Understandably, Boylan's book on Hawaii's essential political leader, Jack Burns, wins readers' interest, although the subject died a quarter century ago.
Pratt's book, co-authored by Zachary Smith, is moving up on local bestseller lists and it should.
He is the director of the University of Hawaii's public administration program, responsible for teaching potential state leaders about government in Hawaii and has a fine grasp of the forces at work in government here.
Tying together Hawaii's lack of strong two-party competition with the power of the governor over the Legislature and the lack of real competing interest from private business and you come up with Pratt's summary of legislative expectations:
"A Legislature that historically has not responded quickly, and sometimes not at all, to external forces...and has difficulty creating coalitions capable of sustaining significant reform."
All that means is the Legislature, once the lightning rod for reform, is not the place to look if you want to change government. Too many people think alike or just want to go along to allow for a group that will push the envelope.
Pratt spends some time going over the important link between local identity and politics. If it is true that good old boys get elected to the legislatures in both Georgia and Hawaii, the Hawaii Legislature can become a strange place for those who don't appreciate local culture.
"It is born of social values found in the Asian and Pacific immigrant culture...cooperation, loyalty and consensus-making, versus mainland styles of aggressiveness, competition and achievement.
"By creating an unspoken, but well understood, line between Insiders and Outsiders, this distinction became a means for establishing and maintaining power," Pratt wrote.
How many politicians can you remember who ran to victory on a campaign of protecting Hawaii from troubling values from the mainland?
At the same time, while there is a part of local culture that looks to government, especially state government, to solve problems, how that happens is based on relationships between well-acquainted insiders.
"This, in turn, creates an environment in which official behavior can be seen on one hand, as appropriate and desirable loyalty or, on the other hand, as self-serving and corrupt, or simply at maintaining power," Pratt notes.
At the same time, Hawaii's Republicans, Pratt notes, "have been unable to distinguish themselves from the role played in the haole oligarchy and at the same time form coalitions capable of winning elections.
"To have broader appeal, their philosophy must be more compatible with the islands' strong moralistic and traditionalistic subcultures," he said.
In sum, Pratt's book gives a clear-eyed view of Hawaii's political scene, without preaching or talking down. He concludes by offering both a pessimistic and optimistic future, with Hawaii turning more insular or extending itself. The choice is up to us.
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Legislature BillsRichard Borreca reports on Hawaii's politics every Wednesday.
He can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@pixi.com