Dewey & Democracy
According to John Dewey we should think of democracy as an “ethical way of life” and “the memory of an historic past”, because “democracy is not an alternative to other principles of associated life. It is the idea of community life itself”, requiring a “social return” from every individual (Dewey 1927 p. 71). Dewey recognised that because of “the importance of social inquiry for advancing social reform” there can be “a positive role for expert knowledge in a democratic society”, but he was “suspicious of those who advocated that a viable democracy requires a special class of intelligentsia which has the responsibility to make “wise” decisions” because “ultimately, democratic citizens must judge and decide; not the experts”
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76). Even in 1930 Dewey was “alarmed by the growth of a corporate mentality in America”, and referred to the distortion of public opinion by mass media as the “eclipse of the public” (ibid., p. 76). When examining the state of democracy, elections are not the only signifier of democratic rule. Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, when asked if elections were giving democracy a bad name, called for a deepening of democracy and said: “democracy is not just about one day every four or five years when elections are held, but a system of government that respects the separation of powers, fundamental freedoms like the freedom of thought, religion, expression, association and assembly and the rule of law … Any regime that rides roughshod on these principles loses its democratic legitimacy, regardless of whether it initially won an election”