1. A political system, involving such institutions as “universal suffrage, recurring elections, responsibility of those who are in political power to the voters…”
2. Government by the consent of the governed.
3. An educational process.
4. An educational principle.
5. An educational system, one in which all participate in making the decision and all make contributions to the common life.
6. A method, one of reaching decisions by discussion, voting and the acceptance of the majority view.
7. Constantly changing. As Dewey put it, “The very idea of democracy… must be continually explored afresh, to meet the changes that are going on in the development of new needs on the part of human beings and new resources for satisfying these needs.”
8. Concerned with the needs and wants of people, “that asking other people what they would like, what they need, what their ideas are, is an essential part of the democratic idea.”
9. A guide for directing the forces which confront man in his daily living.
10. A kind of freedom. Dewey speaks of “democratic freedom,” saying that “it designates a mental attitude rather than external unconstraint of movements…”
11. A criterion for making judgments about conditions, developments, and institutions.
12. A theory of knowledge. Dewey says that democracy “must develop a theory of knowledge which sees in knowledge the method by which one experience is made available in giving direction and meaning to another.”
13. Closely related to science and the scientific method. He indicates in connection with his call for a democratic theory of knowledge that the “recent advances in physiology, biology and the logic of the experimental sciences supply the specific intellectual instrumentalities demanded to work out and formulate such a theory.” On another occasion he said: “While it would be absurd to believe it desirable or possible for everyone to become a scientist when science is defined from the side of subject matter, the future of democracy is allied with the spread of the scientific attitude.” It is not clear whether science is democratic or democracy is scientific, or both.
14. An attitude.
15. A belief in a humanistic culture.
16. An economic system, a system “in which all share in useful service and all enjoy a worthy leisure.”
17. A standard for personal conduct.
18. A form of social control. Here the meaning is fairly clear as it refers to political democracy. He means that when an individual participates in the making of decisions he binds himself to follow the decision made, whether it is in accord with his wishes or not.
19. A [method] of organizing society. Dewey frequently used the phrase, “democratic society,” meaning a society so organized that all may participate in its decisions, its goods, the formulation of its ideas and aims, and to which all may contribute.
20. A belief in equality. Equality is essential to democracy and inextricably tied up with it, Dewey thought. By equality he meant several things as usual. “All individuals are entitled to equality of treatment by law and its administration.” He means equality of opportunity also. The very fact of natural and psychological inequality is all the more reason for establishment by law of equality of opportunity, since otherwise the former becomes a means of oppression of the less gifted.” Dewey passed over without comment the probability that government assurance of equality to the less gifted might be an “oppression” of the more gifted. Let there be no doubt about it, the whole tendency of Dewey’s thought was leveling, the breaking down of all distinctions which raise one person or thing above another. To indicate the extent of his thinking in this direction, his comment regarding distinctions made in philosophy is revealing. Democratic abolition of fixed differences between ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ still has to make its way in philosophy.”
21. The belief in the dignity and worth of the individual.
22. Participation in the “formation of the values that regulate the living of men together…”
23. “Primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.”
24. An act of faith from the believer.
25. A set of aims or ends.
26. An ideal, though what he meant was something to be striven for, not an ideal in the Platonic sense.
27. A way of life.
28. A form of life.
29. A living thing, if Dewey’s language is to be interpreted literally. For instance, he says that “democracy in order to live must change and move… If it is to live… [it] must go forward… If it does not go forward, if it tries to stand still, it is already starting on the backward road that leads to extinction.”
30. A concept for the organization of every aspect of a society and its culture, including all areas of life in its extended meaning. Dewey said: “The problem of freedom and democratic institutions is tied up with the question of what kind of culture exists…” And, “The struggle for democracy has to be maintained on as many fronts as culture has aspects: political, economic, international, educational, scientific and artistic, religious.”
In short… what Carson, Arendt, myself, and many others have concluded is the “democracy” that dewey supports is not democracy at all. Dewey’s democracy is a “total system” of control. An all permeating intrusion of the individual, something far from freedom. Dewey’s “democracy” is actually totalitarianism.
The entire content of this article was taken from…
Clarence B. Carson (1960) The Concept of Democracy and John Dewey, Modern Age (Spring), 181-87.
Also Referenced…
Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism
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