Walter Lippmann and John Dewey

1
Walter Lippmann and John Dewey

• The Shape of U.S. Democracy

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Context

• Fear of propaganda
• Fear of industrialization, urbanization,
  political revolt
• Belief in fundamentally irrational nature of
  humankind
• Fear that democracy might become demagoguery (via
  majority rule)

3
Lippmann (1)

• Apply scientific management to democracy, in
  order to tame it
• People do not know the world directly, have only
  a pseudo-environment in their heads.
• Maps of the world provided by the press have been
  drawn by (conflicting) special interests.
• People depend on stereotypes are essentially
  incompetent to participate in political
  decision-making

4
Lippmann (2)

• Sources of perceptual distortion censorship,
  limited social contact, insufficient study time,
  insufficiency of communication for complex ideas,
  fear of threatening facts, prejudices and
  stereotypes.

5
Lippmann (3)

• In practice public opinion does not arise from
  the people, it is created through the
  manufacture of consent, that employs symbolic
  power, appeals to irrational emotions, and is
  ever more sophisticated because of psychology and
  communication technologies.

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Lippmann (4)

• Traditional democratic theory assumes people are
  naturally endowed for self-government.
• But, people are limited by the nature of the
  public, the press, and the organizational
  structure of news.
• People unwilling to pay true price for reliable
  information, preferring newspapers that are
  dependent on advertising revenue, and that
  provide facts without explaining context and
  whose selection is unduly influenced by
  lobbyists.
• The notion of peoples rule is a fiction that
  helps soften the actions of government.

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Lippmann (5)

• The cure of democracy lies in the development of
  intelligence divisions supporting the various
  agencies of government, staffed by social
  scientists, preparing the knowledge that is
  needed by decision-makers.
• Power should rest with a few men of action,
  public policy analysts and political leaders.
  All that is needed for democracy is for an In
  and an Out group the In group can be voted
  out periodically.

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Lippmann (6)

• The point of democracy is its results, not the
  process. The public are only spectators.
• The press could be reformed only to the extent of
  separating facts from opinion. He praised
  objectivity.

9
Dewey

• Science does not stand outside of or above human
  existence. Science needs to be complemented by
  aesthetics.
• Intelligence is more important than reason, and
  needs to guide reason. Intelligence is not
  about control but about the realization of
  values.
• Truth is relative its relativity calls our
  attention to who determines what should be truth
  the test of truth is its consequences for the
  people.
• Good decisions come about through the expression
  and interaction of all relevant opinions, and the
  availability of all relevant information

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Dewey (2)

• Problems of democracy are to do with
  bureaucratization, impersonalization, influence
  of corporate power on political life.
• The cure is a system of communication that
  connects with citizens and the press, a more
  participatory form of democracy.
• The press should function to help define truth,
  and resolve contradiction between individual and
  social interests. Through communication,
  individuals are able to judge their values in
  terms of the shared interests of the public.
  Communication facilitates shared experience.

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Dewey (3)

• Concerned about alliances between powerful
  interests, government and news. He doubts that a
  scientific ruling elite would be independent of
  the power of capital.
• Concerned about social class divisions that
  interfered with ethics of democracy. The State
  should regulate to lessen the impact of social
  inequalities but how could an elite ruling class
  be trusted to do this?
• Democracy is recognition of fundamentally social
  and interdependent nature of human existence.

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Dewey (4)

• Democracy is not just political, but it is also
  civil and industrial.
• If people can participate in decision-making in
  all major walks of life they will be better
  educated (intelligence is public more than
  individual), more skilful in expressing
  themselves, more aware of group interest, with
  more reasoned opinions that take into account the
  interests of others.
• The press can be reformed to serve as a vital
  link between government and the people.

13
Dewey (5)

• Lippmanns policy analysts would become a
  self-interested power block.
• The public cannot take executive action, but they
  can intervene at critical junctures through the
  voting system.
• Even to do this the public needs more experience
  of participation, articulation, supported by more
  impartial information.
• It is not just the public that can be irrational
  countless leaders have been accused of just that.
  In any case, the public are not primarily
  irrational, they are primarily social.

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Dewey (6)

• Democracy is not a guarantee against abuse, but
  neither is it a cause of abuse.
• Democracy is developmental it is the embodiment
  of community, built into the social character of
  existence.
• Technology and capitalism impede the development
  of community and democracy.