This year's Democratic platform may sound like Teddy Roosevelt's 1912 Progressive Party platform if it is to reflect the mood of the 1970's, according the Doris H. Kearns, assistant professor of Government.

Kearns is one of five Harvard associates whom Richard E. Neustadt, professor of Government and acting chairman of the Democratic Platform Committee, has asked to do research on various issues for the 1972 Democratic Party platform.

The other Harvard associates are Elisabeth K. Allison, lecturer in Business Administration: Lance M. Liebman, assistant professor of Law: Marc J. Roberts '64, assistant professor of Economics: and James Vorenberg '49, professor of Law.

Neustadt said last week that individuals associated with Harvard, including the five research associates and several graduate students, comprise about a quarter of the Platform Committee's research staff.

Kearns, who worked in the White House during the waning days of the Johnson Administration and was involved in the 1968 Kennedy campaign, said her section on "Government and the People" would include discussion of electoral reform, government decentralization, security and classification, and regulatory agencies.

"It will deal with the whole notion of political process--how to redistribute power by breaking down old institutions and building up new ones," she said.

"You can't reorganize from the top. We've done that for 40 years and nothing's happened because the power base hasn't changed," Kearns contended. "You have to redistribute power to the citizens and force change on the government from the outside. That means giving them resources of power besides the vote--money, knowledge, communications."

At the suggestion of Samuel H. Beer, Eaton Professor of Government, Kearns read the 1912 Progressive Party and 1896 Populist Party platforms, which she said were much closer to the mood of the 1970's than more recent platforms.

"From Teddy Roosevelt's 1912 platform you sense that the political process had gotten away from the people while the Populists captured the contemporary economic dissent," she said. In contrast, Kearns said, the platforms of the 1960's exuded a basic confidence in the existing political system.

Vorenberg, "moderately active" as a Democratic speech writer in the past, said that the plank on "Law, Crime and Justice" which he is researching would probably oppose Federal block grants to local criminal justice agencies.

Instead, he said, the Party might propose that incentives be tied to the Federal funding so that localities might reform their administration of justice.

"For instance, there is a major commitment to imprisonment now. A large percentage of correctional dollars goes to custodial personnel," he explained. "What's needed is community programs--halfway houses, foster homes, residential centers. In many cities and states there is no pressure to reform."

Vorenberg said his research would also treat wiretapping and gun control, an issue "complicated by the assault on Governor (George C., Wallace (D-Ala.), since he's one of the people opposed to it."

Roberts and Allison foresaw no major difference of opinion among the candidates in their areas. Roberts is covering two topics--"Resources. Technology, and the Environment" and "Corporate Responsibility and Consumer Interest"--while Allison is working on "Budget Priorities."

Having written background papers for Congressional candidates two years ago, Roberts is familiar with this work. He also teaches courses on both the environment and antitrust policy. "I want to learn how people conceive of the issues outside of academia and I'm very interested in the policy-making process," he said. "So this is a very educational opportunity."