“Sharon and Arafat couldn’t agree if it was raining,” Dukakis said.

While he said the Bush administration has handled the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan well, he questioned the long-term viability of the current efforts, and warned that more focus should be put on policing and intelligence rather than military defense.

“The people who attacked us didn’t do it with armored divisions. They did it with box cutters,” Dukakis said.

On the domestic front, Dukakis addressed the recent proliferation of corporate crime, saying deregulation must end and the federal government should provide more oversight of businesses.

“The situation has gotten to the point where it’s intolerable,” Dukakis said. “People are upset and they have a right to be.”

But Dukakis said the debate over how to rein in corporate abuse should not overshadow the problems of economic inequality in the country. He bemoaned the growing gap between the rich and the poor, calling the current $5.25 minimum wage “sinful” while stressing the need for more investment in equalizing public education funding.

“I don’t want to see the corporate governance debate mask these real issues,” he said.

Dukakis also touched briefly on electoral politics, saying that the Electoral College should be abolished—especially after the 2000 presidential election in which former Vice President Al Gore ’69 was defeated despite winning more popular votes.

“Not having a popular election of the president in the 21st century doesn’t make sense,” Dukakis said.

And he was open about his own political mistakes, saying he should have responded to the attack campaign launched against him late in the 1988 campaign that led to his defeat.

He said the current Massachusetts gubernatorial race was “too quiet,” and that Democratic candidates needed to “challenge [Republican candidate Mit] Romney now.”

Before returning briefly to his message of public service to end the discussion, Dukakis took some time to explain his belief in the need for government support for a national light-rail system.

Dukakis—who took the T to the speech—currently serves as the vice chair of Amtrak’s board of directors. Amtrak has been beset by financial problems in recent months and has called on the government to provide assistance in order to ensure its survival.

“It has never been the recipient of the capital investment it needs,” said Dukakis, who said airports and highways have received the majority of transportation funding. “For 35 years, Amtrak has been limping around with a tin cup.”

But he said he thinks after Sept. 11, many people in the U.S. are looking for alternative means of transportation.

“The potential is huge. The demand is great,” Dukakis said.

Dukakis took questions for over an hour from students. The discussion was the first in the Institute of Politics Summer-In-Boston series.

—Staff writer Imtiyaz H. Delawala can be reached at delawala@fas.harvard.edu.