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."

But Wills said history has shown the country has appreciated big government in times of crisis.

"In wartime, the public clings to leadership," he said, warning that people might even become "too docile."

Wills drew on his journalism experience during the lecture, suggesting that the press can use its role to clarify the Constitution.

With his characteristic attention to language, he used the term "co-equal branches of government" as an example of a constitutional inaccuracy.

"The idea that there is a kind of equality in the branches of government is absurd," said Wills, who called on the media to clear up common misnomers. "It has no basis in fact. The term co-equal should make the hairs on your head stand a little."

Although Wills clearly diagnosed the problem of distrust, "it would have been helpful for him to suggest some hypothetical ways to change a culture so distrustful of government," said Ron Mallis, a mid-career student at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG). "He left me hanging."

Sara G. Hamlen, also a KSG mid-career student, said she "enjoyed his cogent explanation of the usefulness of government."

Hamlen said she agreed with Wills' assertion that the nation trusts government in crisis, pointing to

America's relative apathy regarding the Y2K bug.

"Americans have an amazing faith that the government can save them," she said. "There is an optimism hidden under there."