{"id":698,"date":"2007-01-19T02:54:07","date_gmt":"2007-01-19T07:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=698"},"modified":"2018-08-19T08:34:31","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T12:34:31","slug":"friday-january-19-2007-schools-for-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=698","title":{"rendered":"Friday, January 19, 2007 \u2014 Schools for Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have all com\u00adplained about the lack of decent can\u00addi\u00addates to vote for, in elec\u00adtions. Yet noth\u00ading com\u00adpels us to con\u00adstant\u00adly elect sleazy and incom\u00adpe\u00adtent peo\u00adple to pub\u00adlic office. Every com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty has tal\u00adent\u00aded, hon\u00adourable, and uncor\u00adrupt\u00adible peo\u00adple. It is the struc\u00adture and cus\u00adtom\u00adary oper\u00ada\u00adtion of polit\u00adi\u00adcal par\u00adties that ensure that such peo\u00adple nev\u00ader enter politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what is the solu\u00adtion for peo\u00adple who want to see reform and progress in their com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adties (whether local, region\u00adal, or nation\u00adal)? I think the solu\u00adtion is a school. What if there was a School of Demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic Pub\u00adlic Ser\u00advice? It\u2019s pur\u00adpose would be to pre\u00adpare peo\u00adple to run for pub\u00adlic office. We expect some\u00adone who runs a hydro-elec\u00adtric plant to study civ\u00adil engi\u00adneer\u00ading, we expect a car\u00adpen\u00adter to study car\u00adpen\u00adtry. Why should we not expect any\u00adone who presents them\u00adself as a can\u00addi\u00addate for polit\u00adi\u00adcal office to have stud\u00adied it? This is not the same thing as study\u00ading \u201cPolit\u00adi\u00adcal Sci\u00adence\u201d. We would expect a seri\u00adous can\u00addi\u00addate for pub\u00adlic office to study phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy, eco\u00adnom\u00adics, man\u00adage\u00adment, envi\u00adron\u00admen\u00adtal sci\u00adence, urbanol\u00ado\u00adgy, his\u00adto\u00adry, soci\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy, law, human rights and moral phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy, among oth\u00ader things, specif\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly as they relate to hold\u00ading pub\u00adlic office. If there was a school which offered a degree of Mas\u00adter of Demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic Pub\u00adlic Ser\u00advice, and its cours\u00ades where observ\u00adably rig\u00ador\u00adous and pro\u00adgres\u00adsive, I would cer\u00adtain\u00adly look on any inde\u00adpen\u00addent can\u00addi\u00addate who held that degree with enough respect to con\u00adsid\u00ader vot\u00ading for them. If any par\u00adty went out of its way to select can\u00addi\u00addates who held such degrees, I would be inclined to take its plat\u00adform seri\u00adous\u00adly. I would be even more inclined to vote for some\u00adone who could demon\u00adstrate that they did not enter pol\u00adi\u00adtics from busi\u00adness, or law prac\u00adtices that obvi\u00adous\u00adly incline them to bend to spe\u00adcial inter\u00adests or to seek finan\u00adcial gain through their office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most social change gets rolling when there are schools that teach it. A school teach\u00ading mod\u00adern demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic reform in such a way as to train peo\u00adple for pub\u00adlic office could influ\u00adence soci\u00adety for the bet\u00adter. Grad\u00adu\u00adates could first enter local pol\u00adi\u00adtics, then grad\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly dis\u00adplace the exist\u00ading pat\u00adtern of can\u00addi\u00addates in high\u00ader and high\u00ader lev\u00adels. Not only should such an insti\u00adtu\u00adtion pull togeth\u00ader the most advanced and pro\u00adgres\u00adsive ideas, but it should be found\u00aded and financed in some grass-roots, dif\u00adfuse, and demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic way, so that there is no shad\u00adow of doubt that it remains out\u00adside the influ\u00adence of pow\u00ader\u00adful elites. It\u2019s stu\u00addents should be select\u00aded, from the begin\u00adning, with the under\u00adstand\u00ading that they are not pur\u00adsu\u00ading a polit\u00adi\u00adcal career for their own enrich\u00adment, or to advance the agen\u00adda of some priv\u00adi\u00adleged seg\u00adment of soci\u00adety, but to delib\u00ader\u00adate on leg\u00adis\u00adla\u00adtion for the pub\u00adlic good. There are many peo\u00adple in the world who have no dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adty doing this. It is a mat\u00adter of per\u00adson\u00adal char\u00adac\u00adter. It would be the job of such a school to select peo\u00adple of such char\u00adac\u00adter, arm them with the knowl\u00adedge and intel\u00adlec\u00adtu\u00adal dis\u00adci\u00adpline they need, and then put them into the polit\u00adi\u00adcal arena.<\/span>
\n It goes with\u00adout say\u00ading that such a school should offer full schol\u00adar\u00adships to promis\u00ading stu\u00addents in the remotest and most dis\u00adad\u00advan\u00adtaged places of the world. The his\u00adto\u00adry and tech\u00adniques of suc\u00adcess\u00adful demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion and reform would be an essen\u00adtial part of the curriculum.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elite uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adties, mil\u00adi\u00adtary schools, and busi\u00adness schools spread many of the anti-demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic ideas that have bru\u00adtal\u00adized and exploit\u00aded us. It is time we turned the tide, and used edu\u00adca\u00adtion for pro\u00adgres\u00adsive ends.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have all com\u00adplained about the lack of decent can\u00addi\u00addates to vote for, in elec\u00adtions. Yet noth\u00ading com\u00adpels us to con\u00adstant\u00adly elect sleazy and incom\u00adpe\u00adtent peo\u00adple to pub\u00adlic office. Every com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty has tal\u00adent\u00aded, hon\u00adourable, and uncor\u00adrupt\u00adible peo\u00adple. It is the struc\u00adture and customary \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-at-blog-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9296,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions\/9296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}