Concerning the role of universities in the formation of Catholic conservatism in the USA

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of the main aspects of universities’ influence on the foundation and modern development of the ideology of Catholic conservatism in the US. Introductory part defines two basic strategies of defining and constructing Catholic education’s identity: countercultural and adaptive. The former implies a strict student’s upbringing according to the norms of Catholic morality, the latter — acquisition of skills that allow to assume leading positions in country’s politics and economics. It is stated that their genesis and development were caused by the unique political and cultural circumstances of the USA, in particular, the church-state separation and hostile protestant culture. The first section offers the classification of modern Catholic universities based on the degree of their integration in secular culture and global economic. Five models are proposed: pluralist, dialogical, conservative, formational and exclusivist. The section demonstrates how universities’ institutional structures represent the main currents of the modern Catholic conservatism. The second section argues that the differences between modern Catholic conservative critique of the secular universities and its mid-twentieth century version point to the fundamental transformation of the ideology of Catholic conservatism itself. The main difference consist in a realization of a connection between moral and economic aspects of university, which manifested itself in the populist critique of the meritocratic principle in higher education. This ideological shift allows to explain the reason for growing dissatisfaction of conservative voters and politicians with a government funding of institutions of higher education which are being perceived as hostile and dysfunctional.