A weak national government does not guarantee personal liberties, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills told a 200-member audience at the Institute of Politics (IOP)'s ARCO Forum last night.

Criticizing those who believe "the best government is no government," the author of Lincoln at Gettysburg said powerless leadership is "panicky, arbitrary and random," rather than "confident, fair and just."

Wills, described as a "Renaissance man" by Acting Director of the Shorenstein Center for Press, Politics and Public Policy Thomas Patterson, delivered the 10th annual White Lecture on Press and Politics, an address previously given by broadcasters Walter Cronkite and Cokie Roberts.

"How did we get the idea that the government is supposed to be inefficient?" he asked. "The Soviet government had a weak hold on the public, but that did not make it less tyrannical."

Distrust of strong leadership is not a new phenomenon, Wills continued, citing the Articles of Confederation as an example of a constitution drawn up in response to popular distrust.

"The result," Wills said, "was a disaster."

Pessimism was "not a language voiced by advocates of the Constitution," Wills said. "We live with a language of cynicism about our government. Is there no virtue [in our government]? I think there is."

He conceded that it is natural for citizens to "distrust those who have power over our lives: doctors, lawyers, accountants" in order to assert "our need for accountability."