Democracy and Flourishing

Today I was teaching a class about leadership in which I found myself claiming that democracy as a way of life or everyday practice is one of the things every person needs to be fulfilled, to thrive, to flourish as a human being. It is the sort of thing you sometimes say (or at least I do) when you get caught up in the heat of a teaching moment, when you find yourself speaking so passionately that you fall prey to hyperbole and exaggeration. So once the class was over and there was time to consider the situation more soberly, I wondered: Is it really true that democracy as a way of life is one of the conditions that makes human flourishing possible?

My temptation is to say both yes and no. No in the sense that I am sure we can all think of people who have led very fulfilling, self-realized lives without the support of a democratic environment. But yes is also a defensible answer in that democracy makes such self-fulfillment so much more likely. Why should that be the case?

Democracy, at least in the sense I mean it, is form of interaction that allows you to speak openly and freely in conversation with others, invites you to listen closely and profitably to what those others say to you, encourages you to learn from and build on what other people contribute, gives you at least some say in the decisions that a group of people arrive at, and helps you gain new appreciation for what individuals can add to a group and can accomplish together as a community of thinkers and doers.

Without democracy, our speaking skills aren't quite as sharp nor is our listening ability nearly as well developed. Our capacity for learning also isn't quite as large, and our experiences in making decisions that affect our life not quite as great. Finally, our opportunities to appreciate what it means to be part of a collaborative group also end up being much more limited. In other words, I don't think we can reach our potential as people without the experiences that define democratic practice.

As usual, John Dewey probably said it most comprehensively (if not best) in that famous speech he gave during his 80th birthday celebration in 1939. Titled "Creative Democracy: The Task Before Us," Dewey spoke of his grounded faith in the ability of human beings to reach sound decisions through reason and practical judgement that grow out of continuous and increasingly expansive dialogue. He noted that when democracy is absent, the contacts, the exchanges, the communications, the interactions which make learning and growth possible are greatly constrained. When democracy is present, the points of contact between individuals through communication proliferate, leading to a body of experience that enlarges and enriches, and supports us in overturning our unexamined and untenable assumptions.

Perhaps most relevant of all to the argument that democracy makes human flourishing possible are these words from Dewey: "The democratic faith in human equality is belief that every human being, independent of the quantity or range of personal endowment, has the right to equal opportunity...and the democratic belief in the principle of leadership is a generous one. It is universal. It is a belief in the capacity of every person to lead his own life free from coercion and imposition by others provided right conditions are supplied."

To the extent that democracy grants us control over the direction and purpose of our own life and to the extent that such control is the key to human self-realization, so the connection between democracy and human flourishing is established. Hyperbole? Hardly. As Dewey has said countless times in hundreds of different contexts, Democracy and growth go hand in hand. We cannot develop as learners, nor as people in relationship with others without the school that democracy provides. What motivates us most as humans and as practitioners of democracy is what Dewey called our "generous belief in [our] possibilities as human beings, a belief which brings with it the need for providing conditions which will enable these capacities to reach fulfillment."

We thus embrace democracy, especially in its everyday form, as the path that makes the pursuit of happiness possible. Jefferson understood this as well as Dewey. Emerson most assuredly did, too. If scientists advance by standing on the shoulders of giants, then practitioners of democracy advance by sitting in a circle with other practitioners of democracy. It is an endless, dizzying, exhilarating, and ultimately life-giving process that continually opens the way, in Dewey's own words "into the unexplored and unattained future."