Natalie Davis

December 16, 2011

Honors 230 Final Paper
Education: the Key to a Thoughtful Public and the Continued Prosperity of
Democracy
The examination of leadership is a practice widespread throughout
history and societies in which political regimes ranged from monarchies to
communism, republics to dictatorships. However, the relatively recent
development and success of democratic societies calls for a refreshed
assessment. Because the format of most other regimes consists of the
control of citizens by the government, reflections on leadership in those
settings are only concerned with the governing body and its success in
improving and preserving that regime. On the other hand, democracy in its
ideal sense takes the opposite form: control of the government by the
people. The direction of a democratic regime is not only determined by its
leaders but also its true governing body: the public. Reflections on
leadership, then, must not only be focused on the impact of leaders on the
democracy but the improvement and preservation of the public that steers
the democracy as well. The course propositions regarding persuasion,
information seeking and recovery and reconstitution within a democracy
essentially its initiation, sustaining, and recovery mechanisms are
presented through the lense of the role of a leader in these processes.
However, because of the degree of responsibility entrusted with the people,
their role in these functions is arguably more influential than that of the
leader with whom the influence is so often associated.
I therefore would like to flip the examination of leadership on its
head, to borrow Sally Jenkins phrase from her article on leadership in the
context of sports teams, and approach these interactions involved with
creating, sustaining, and recovering of a democracy with an emphasis on the
role of the public instead of its leaders. Furthermore, examining the
importance of the public in these interactions underlines the necessity that
this public is a thoughtful one, an importance already implied by the
inclusion of A More Thoughtful Public in the course title but that deserves
additional, in depth attention.
A thoughtful public does not come about unassisted; educating for
democracy is the best way to ensure the prosperity of a democratic regime,
and given the context of education in which the concepts of Leadership,
Democracy and a More Thoughtful Public have been presented, it is only
natural to examine the role of the public with a focus on the symbiotic
relationship between the education of upcoming generations and the
outcome of the leadership functions outlined in the propositions.

Although the first proposition addresses both the creation of a

persuaded audience and creating and sustaining a more thoughtful
public, there tends to be a greater emphasis on the former enacted by the
leader. Chapters one (Persuasion: A Critical Function of Leadership) and
three (Ethics and Ecology of Persuasion) from Soders Language of
Leadership discuss the effectiveness of the methods and ethics of persuasion
employed by the leader on their intended audiences. Leaders are advised to
be aware of the culture of their audience, strategically choose to target the
ethos, logos or pathos, and avoid practices that give persuasion a negative
connotation such as elegance of speech to the point where craftiness is
suspected and an over eagerness to provide the audience with what they
want to hear. The overall concern is their ability to sway the response of
those they are trying to persuade, but what about the public, the people on
the receiving end of these persuasive methods? An illusion is created that a
leader has the power to more or less mold the reception of and response to
their argument when in reality the success of their persuasive attempts is
dependent upon the decision of the audience to be convinced or not.
Furthermore, this decision does not simply chalk up to a victory or a failure of
the leader but directly influences the future of the democracy through the
way the public votes or the goals of a leader that they choose to support.
The degree of influence that the outcome of these persuasive interactions
has on the overall direction of the societys government proves why a
thoughtful public is an essential part of proposition one and persuasion.
As is evident in Soders third chapter in Language of Leadership,
information seeking is similar to persuasion in that it is a strategic leadership
function with the intent of gaining desirable ground with the public that
produces a favorable outcome for the leader. Proposition twos emphasis on
ethical and effective information seeking for ethical and effective
leadership, despite the stress on ethical proceedings, is angled toward the
goals of the leader, and because of the dangers that lie within and the
challenges that sometimes arise in situations involving information seeking,
even the use and effectiveness of more devious and less straightforward
methods are considered in order to accomplish them. Although the ethics of
such methods are weighed in Language of Leadership, not all leaders
operate in compliance with what would be considered ethical standards.
Although the benefits of the leader are clear, it is essential to again
turn the tables to examine the role that the public is playing in the
information seeking game and its impact on the people as a whole. While the
majority of political information seeking does not consist of interactions
between the leader and the public directly, it nevertheless is pertinent to the
status of the relationship between them. Because of the close scrutiny under
which leaders operate, the public can easily become aware of the use of any
devious or unethical information seeking practices. Their role, therefore, is to
hold their leaders accountable for the ways which they conduct business.

Additionally, in the off chance that they may be more directly faced with
information seeking advances by a leader, the power again lies with them,
this time in the possession of information and ability to decide whether to
share or withhold it. Despite the fact that this leadership function differs from
persuasion in the sense that it is mostly an indirect interaction, the need for
a thoughtful public is just as necessary to regulate the conduct of the leader
and base their future choices in leaders on these standards, the outcome of
which also is a strong determining factor in the preservation or
deterioration, if information seeking grows corrupt of the democratic
regime.
The fourth proposition states that A more thoughtful public must not
only be created and sustained, but, given that things inevitably fall apart,
must be recovered and reconstituted. Soders chapter on Reconciliation and
Reconstitution then proceeds to look at these processes in terms of how a
leader is to be most successful in carrying them out. The determining factor,
however, is yet again the reception of these attempts by the public, and
while strategies with relatively reliable outcomes may be applied, the end
result is dependent upon how such solicitations are interpreted and decided
upon. The basic nature of these interactions places the power in the hands of
the audience, as the leader is striving to appeal to them and cannot entirely
control the outcome.
In the two most crucial interactions involved with reconciliation and
reconstitution, apology and forgiveness, the role of the public is far more
significant than that of the leader. The success of an apology, when it is
approached from the perspective of the leader, is actually entirely in the
hands of the audience. The choice is theirs whether or not to accept an
apology, and even if accepted the subsequent granting of forgiveness is not
necessarily guaranteed. It is necessary for the people to feel that an apology
is thorough and sincere in order to both accept it and grant forgiveness. In
other words, genuine forgiveness only comes to fruition when it is
meaningful to both parties. The processes of reconciliation and
reconstitution make up perhaps the most crucial interactions between
leaders and the public, because when these take place it is usually in the
wake of major crises or changes that shape the history and future of the
democracy as a whole. The reaction of the public to recovery methods is
therefore hugely influential and due to the scale of these outcomes a
thoughtful public is invaluable if a democracy is to be sustained and proceed
in a positive direction.
Following the examination of these propositions from the perspective
of the role of the public and its influence, it is clear how truly important the
presence and participation of a thoughtful public is in the leadership
functions that shape a democracy. Leadership involves creating and
sustaining a more thoughtful public; in persuading, helping to create a

more thoughtful public; a more thoughtful public must not only be created
and sustained The three propositions discussed all include mention of the
need to create and sustain a thoughtful public as a part of the leadership
functions they promote. However, it is then encouraged that leaders utilize
strategies in persuasion, information seeking, and reconciliation and
reconstitution that generally aim to manipulate the audience in order to
accomplish a calculated result, and success is measured in terms of the
endeavors of the leader. Granted, the propositions keep a more thoughtful
public in mind, but its role in the analysis of these leadership functions is
minimally addressed, which is concerning considering the influence of the
public in the overall future of leadership within the regime.
The sustaining of a democracy depends on the decisions that the
people make as a result of their interactions with leaders; it is essential that
a public so in control of the overall fate of the regime be a thoughtful one,
and the most effective way to ensure that is through education. This
education should focus not only on approaching situations in which leaders
use persuasion, information seeking, and reconstitution and reconciliation
methods and the powerful role of the public in these interactions with
increased awareness but also fostering a greater understanding of the big
picture and long term effects within the democracy. Soder captures the
essence of this point in Educating for Democracy: If you want a democratic
regime, then you will want all people, as a matter of principle, to have a
working knowledge of the conditions necessary to creating and maintaining
the regime.
First, let us look at how an educated public can more actively
participate in and determine the outcome of the leadership function of
persuasion addressed in proposition one. If people have learned about
persuasive methods such as the differing types of arguments, the careful
ordering of the goods and the traps of euphemisms and distancing
language used by leaders, they will be able to identify when these strategies
are being used and avoid falling victim to them as simply a persuaded
audience. A more thoughtful consideration of these persuasive attempts
results in careful choices of whether or not to be persuaded, which is
necessary to maintain the authority of the public. This type of audience
demands ethical, honest and well thought out persuasion attempts from a
leader.
Although the indirect nature of information seeking may make public
involvement appear less important, it in fact is even more so because of the
increased level of involvement that is necessary to keep watch over the ways
that a leader seeks information. As with persuasion, background knowledge
regarding techniques used in these practices is necessary to be able to
recognize their use and to differentiate between those which are ethical and
those which are not. Some of the major red flags are an unwillingness to give

information in return, distinct seeking of information from select sources, and

the gathering of information through dishonest means such as lying or
spying. A thoughtful public is especially essential in this leadership function
because of the additional effort needed to effectively maintain an awareness
of the actions of a leader that are not visible upfront; this dedication is not
something that is found within a passively persuaded audience. Where
information seeking remains similar to persuasion is that more thoughtful
and knowledgeable participation of the public promotes more ethical
practices by their leaders and therefore improves leadership within the
democracy.
Recovery and reconstitution requires a more specific kind of education
that goes beyond the basic awareness of methods that has defined
educating for cognitive interactions regarding persuasion and information
seeking. It is true that public knowledge of leadership techniques involved
with apologies and forgiveness is necessary to reduce the ease with which
the people are swayed and increase the amount of thought that is put into
their assessment and decisions regarding these efforts to win them over.
However, there is a deeper understanding at hand that requires a brief
explanation. The concept of a more thoughtful public is borrowed from Ralph
Lerners Revolutions Revisited: Two Faces of the Politics of Enlightenment in
which he explains how the cornerstones of the democracy indicate the
involvement of the people that its founders desired; politicians of their rank
have in view not only a persuaded audience but a more thoughtful public.
Additionally, he notes that history serves as common ground on which
politicians and the public can meet, and on occasions where a leader aims to
initiate change, Lerner describes the how drawing upon historical reference
can be effective, as it has been for many previous influential leaders:
In each case the statesman begins by seeking to settle his publics
mind about some distressing issue of the day. To do so he makes use of an
old art at once poetic and philosophic, seductive and hectoring, adroit and
nave. His defense of his regime is designed to stiffen the unsteady, rouse
the drowsy, and meet the enemy on his own ground.
Therefore, educating the public about the history of their regime and
its original ideology in particular equips them to understand the intent of
such historical references and to more thoughtfully process them. The result
of this increased public awareness is a continuation of the trend of raising
the standards of the conduct of leaders and promoting overall better
leadership.
The benefits of educating the public to be more thoughtful participants
in the leadership functions of persuasion, information seeking, and
reconciliation and reconstitution because of the influence of their significant

role in these processes are tremendous on their own, but the importance of
education does not stop there.
Let us revisit Lerners fundamental idea of the importance of the
thoughtful participation of the public that their predecessors envisioned:
the thoughtful public. In America, a thoughtful public is aware of and strives
to maintain the founding opinions fundamental to the perpetuation of the
regime. This kind of public attitude and perspective comes from an
education that goes beyond that of preparing the people to more
knowledgeably approach interactions with leaders, recognize the power of
their role, and the influence on leadership that their choices have: it is an
education in the sustaining of democracy.
The effects of the publics decisions in persuasive, information seeking,
and reconstitution processes are often only viewed in terms of their short
term impact on the next political action taken by a leader or the shaping of
the current leadership culture. A more thoughtful public, however, is aware
of how the type of leadership that is promoted by their influence is capable
of both preserving and destroying the democratic regime; in order for
democracy to be sustained, there must be a greater understanding of the
long term implications of the choices that are being made now. In America,
this does not present itself as an easy task in the midst of a culture
consumed with instant gratification and striving for short term gains, a
culture which Alexis de Tocquevilles Democracy in America verifies is not a
recent development. When he visited the country in the early 1830s, this
sense of hurriedness that he picked up on inspired the title of the chapter
Why the Americans are often so Restless in the Midst of Their Prosperity in
which he writes: one will then find people continually changing path for fear
of missing the shortest cut leading to happiness. A mindset that focuses so
narrowly on the next immediate thing is incapable of supporting a
democracy in the long term, and the fact that this is so engrained in
American culture is further indication of the need to educate for long term
thinking.
While Soder identifies the necessity of a more thoughtful public for the
existence of democracy, Stewart Brand fully captures the power of a grasp of
big picture and long term ideas among the people. He quotes Freeman
Dysons pertinent point that you can always improve things if youre
prepared to wait. When looking at the role of the public in leadership
processes, these improvements are those that can be enacted by thoughtful
and active participation in persuasion, information seeking, and recovery and
reconstitution. The problem, given the nature of American culture, is that
since the ultimate benefits of these improvements are not always seen or
experienced in ones lifetime, we have a hard time remaining dedicated to
them.

Brand uses the term long view to encompass a big picture and long
term perspective that extends through both the past and the future, and
notes that people take the long view when they feel a commitment to those
who come after them. However, I believe that the opposite is true, a long
view is necessary in order to feel this type of commitment because only with
a long view can the public see the impact that their contribution to
leadership functions in the present has on the democracy in the future,
making tangible the responsibility of preserving and increasing options for
the generations to come. Lerner includes two epigrams at the end of the
chapter that powerfully sum up this sense of bilateral responsibility. The first
comes from the poet Gary Snyder: This present moment/That lives on to
become/Long ago. Lerner answers with: This present moment/Used to
be/The unimaginable future. This culminating combination is a strong
reminder that we are simultaneously creating the history for the generations
to follow and fulfilling the future that those that came before us had such
high hopes for, and we owe it to both parties to put forth the effort to sustain
a democracy that we can be proud of. This is the long term thinking that is
an essential part of educating a more thoughtful public, since preserving a
democracy is meaningless without an understanding of its role in the big
picture and its implications for the future.
Now that the significance of the role of the public in its interactions
with leaders, the necessity that this public is thoughtful, and the means by
which to cultivate a more thoughtful public (education) have been covered,
the question remains of how this education is to be implemented. This is
where the focus, which has mostly been on the democracy and thoughtful
public of Leadership, Democracy, and a More Thoughtful Public, returns to
the element of leadership, for only through leaders can this education begin.
Leadership has the greatest impact on the creating and sustaining of a
more thoughtful public of propositions one, two and four by way of its
contribution to educating for democracy through the symbiotic relationship
between the education of upcoming generations and the outcome of the
leadership functions outlined in the propositions that is outlined earlier in
the paper.
The first step in making education for democracy a reality is the
persuasion by a leader of the current public and other leaders in place. Soder
describes persuasion as making and offering to others a choice of
worldview. The worldview at hand a Brand-inspired long view inspiring
the present actions of a thoughtful public once chosen by a leader, can only
come to fruition when offered in the most effective way possible. This
constitutes the full utilization of the persuasive methods of Language of
Leaderships chapter on Ethics and Ecology of Persuasion, with an
emphasis on those that are ethical, for what is the value in commencing the
process of the creation and sustaining of a more thoughtful public if it is
brought about by unethical means? Maintaining the opportunity for the

public to fully realize its role in the persuasive function of leadership lays the
groundwork for fostering thoughtful participation in the long term. As Bill
Mester, superintendent of the Snohomish School District, emphasized in his
presentation and demonstrates through his own leadership practices, a
leader should listen to the people and guide them in what they want rather
than attempt to persuade the audience to support their personal agenda.
Granted, there is a possibility, when relying on pure, honest persuasion
rather than force, that persuasive efforts will fail, but the principle of the
public choosing on its own accord to educate future generations in the
necessary habits to sustain the democracy makes it far more meaningful if
and/or when it occurs.
The initiation of policies for educating a more thoughtful public is only
half of the battle, because this education must be continued in order for
there to be any long term effects concerning the culture and democracy.
Proposition two covers the importance of information seeking in effective
leadership, such as knowledge of what it takes to persuade others of what
must be done and knowledge of how an audience/public will respond that
are essential in successful persuasion, but perhaps the most crucial content
of this proposition lies in the phrase a leader must have knowledge of what
must be done.
As Soder identifies in the final chapter of Language of Leadership, the
rapid turnover of leaders has created a succession culture in which each
new leader feels the need to make changes to policies that the previous
leader put into place in order to themselves apart and appear to be getting
things done. But it is only that: an appearance. A step back to look at the
big picture reveals that nothing is actually ever getting done because each
plan is altered before it has the chance to take effect, which presents a
challenge for the expanded vision of the suggested education for democracy
and a more thoughtful public. Despite the uncertainty of success, if these
policies for education survive the culture of immediate change long enough,
they will begin to sustain themselves by establishing continuity in the
knowledge of what must be done of leaders. From future generations
brought up with knowledge of the influence of public participation in both
short term political outcomes and long term maintenance of the democracy
will come leaders who know the importance of such education and work to
sustain it as well as a public that, with the same understanding, will exercise
its authority to ensure the continued education of the people in these values.
When the typical leadership functions of persuasion, information
seeking, and reconciliation and reconstitution are examined from the
perspective of the role of the public, it becomes evident just how influential
the public is. Not only does it determine the immediate outcome of these
functions, but it has the potential to improve leadership itself through the
standards that are upheld. A thoughtful public that understands this, as well

as the continued effect that it can have on the entire democracy, senses the
responsibility that is a part of this influence. It takes a mindset and
awareness like that which comes from The Clock of the Long Now to fully
grasp the immensity of this role and fulfill it accordingly. Like the effects on
the overall regime that the public is capable of, the development of such an
outlook throughout society takes time and therefore a conscious and
sustained effort if it is to take hold and last. A leader that effectively utilizes
persuasion and has a firm knowledge of the importance of this expanded
perspective is needed to initiate the education of a thoughtful public, but in
time and with success of the initial effort the cycle will be naturally
sustained.
These kinds of monumental changes in a culture are not easy, but it all
comes down to the assumption of responsibility for the impact of todays
actions on the future as well as a realization that democracy is a privilege
which cannot nurture itself. The maintenance of our democratic regime is
necessary to both make the work contributed and sacrifices made
throughout history worthwhile and pass a regime on to the upcoming
generations that will be forever worthy of saving, just as Lincoln had hoped
to do. He was a firm believer in maintaining the direction that Americas
founding fathers intended for the country, and the Preamble serves as a
reminder that the principles of the United States were established to serve
both ourselves and our Posterity. The public plays a far greater role than it
is often given or gives itself credit for, and it is essential that it be
educated to participate thoughtfully in order to ensure the perpetuation of a
democracy true to its nature.