Dewey's "The Public and its Problems" (1927)

When the great philosophers of our past imagined what would be the ideal national administration, they were faced with a series of conditional constraints or obstructions. Without any constraints they used the language of 'equal rights to all' and 'rule of intellect.' Ideals are often realized in theory, but fail to apply as intended in practice. There's a distinction between democracy as a social idea and political democracy as a form of government. Dewey said that "the idea has influenced the concrete political movement, but has not caused it (144)."

There were several obstructions on the road of practical realization. First, it would have taken much too long to ask the opinion of all citizens; not to mention how few of those citizens could read and write; very few possessed the ability and knowledge needed to participate in, and/or make, political decisions; on top of all of these obstructions was the cost of such an effort; and last, but not least, if history tells us anything, it's that those who possess power and control are unwilling to give any of it away.

As a solution to these, and many other, obstructions, democracies have developed and adopted representative democracy. Representative democracy is necessary to a certain extent, but as it persists today, it enforces the discrimination of two distinct classes of people under the state - the politicians on one hand and the citizens on the other. Politicians tangle the illusion of freedom in front of us citizens and drag us where ever they please. Also, "in the degree in which they become a specialized class, they are shut off from knowledge of the needs which they are supposed to serve (206)."

On this issue, Dewey adds: "Rarely can a person sink himself in his political function; the best which most men attain to is the domination by the public weal of their other desires. What is meant by 'representative' government is that the public is definitely organized with the intent to secure this dominance (76)." And that "the essential problem of government thus reduces itself to this: what arrangements will prevent rulers from advancing their own interests at the expense of the ruled? Or, in positive terms, by what political means shall the interests of the governors be identified with those of the governed (93)?"

Essentially, the citizen's decision-making power is limited to a choice of two, or more, evils from the class of politicians. The citizens elect decision-makers. 'Just vote for a ticket of men mostly unknown to them (118).' The relationship presupposes that the citizens employ politicians, but then, due to the organization of (PmD), the employee assumes control of the nation - the 'citizens' as a collective. Politicians are able to do this because of their monopolization of decision-making power. Moreover, the relationship between politicians and citizens must be reexamined because this class distinction is vulnerable to corruption and inappropriate relations between financial investors and politicians.

Dewey said that "the prime difficulty is that of discovering the means by which a scattered, mobile and manifold public may so recognize itself as to define and express its interests." He said that "this discovery is necessarily precedent to any fundamental change in the machinery (146)." Moreover, "the essential need,.., is the improvement of the methods and conditions of debate, discussion and persuasion (208)."

I don't mean to attack the performance of the Icelandic government, a recent survey suggested that Iceland, as well as Finland, had 'the least corrupt' governments. However, the public of Iceland have a unique opportunity to develop a participatory form of government that will secures better methods and machinery as means to eradicate the problems due to institutionalized organization. Dewey claims that Rousseau had indicated "the only possible solution: the perfecting of the means and ways of communication of meaning so that genuinely shared interest in the consequences of interdependent activities inform desire of effort and thereby direct action (155)." In a word, the key is communication.