­— DANIELLE ALLEN & JUSTIN POTTLE

KNOWLEDGE DEMOCRATIC AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION

Introduction knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 2 THE TRUE, THE FALSE, AND THE POLITICAL: A CASE STUDY A CASE POLITICAL: THE AND FALSE, THE TRUE, THE KNOWLEDGE DEMOCRATIC PROBLEM GEOGRAPHY THE AND MADISON PROBLEM AN OLD FOR SOLUTIONS NEW IS INTERNET MISINFORMATION RUINING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY? AMERICAN RUINING MISINFORMATION INTERNET IS CONTENTS 24 30 3 15 7

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Contents knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 3 Just 2 The 2016 populist 1 century, worries about the the about worries century, th Digital technology is certainly not exclusively to blame for ongoing political and epistemic polarization. Manjoo, Farhad. 2008. True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley resurgence in Western democracies and Donald Trump’s norm-shattering norm-shattering Trump’s Donald and democracies resurgence Western in rise the to presidency given these have anxieties new life on and offline. 1 & Sons. Pariser, Eli. 2011. The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think. New York: Penguin. Sunstein, Cass R. 2009. Republic.com 2.0. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Lessig, Lawrence. 2006. Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books. 2 Recently, Boxell, Gentzkow, and Shapiro find that the greatest growth in polarization has occurred withinthe age groups least likely to use the Internet or social media. See Boxell, Levi, Gentzkow, Matthew and Shapiro, Jesse M. 2017. “Greater Internet use is not associated with faster growth in political polarizationamong US demographic groups.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Published online before print. However, we might follow Langdon Winner (and Wittgenstein) in recognizing that the Internet represents a “form of life,” which shapes the cognitive and material conditions of social reality independentof individuals’ actual use. Just as we live in a world crisscrossed with roads, regardless of whether we drive or not, the Internet precipitates a culture and epistemic ecosystem in which the overwhelming speed, volume, and skepticism of information are the norm online and off. See Winner, Langdon. 2014. “Technologies as Forms of Life.” In Ethics and Emerging Technologies, ed. Ronald L. Sandler. London: Macmillan. Palgrave Since the 2000s, late writers blamed have the Internet for abetting a “post- fact society,” where people, congregating in one-sided “filter bubbles,” have come see to themselves as entitled “their to own facts.” IS INTERNET MISINFORMATION RUINING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY? manipulation of public opinion were perhaps as common as in our own. A close look those at earlier moments can help us clarify the nature of the problem confronts that us and today identify to solutions. The challenge that faces us is not metaphysical; it is not, contra some, the question of what, within the swirl of information surrounds that us, is true and what is false. The challenge, instead,is ethical. is a question, It as Obama said, of whether truth. about “serious” we’re days after the 2016 presidential election, President Barack Obama claimed claimed Obama Barack election, President presidential 2016 the after days are we “If that not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not,” then Americans risked losing “so much gained of what we’ve in terms of the kind prosperity and economies that market-based freedoms and democratic of comewe’ve for take Has to granted.” new technology raised the problems of propaganda and misinformation new to heights? Are they jeopardizing the healthof democracy? How should respond we the to dynamics of what often feels fact-free a like political discourse? Ours is not the first struggledageto have with the problems of propaganda and misinformation. the In first half of the 20

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Is Internet Misinformation Ruining American Democracy? knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 4

3 We owe the focus on this distinction to Luke Menand. “There are two meanings of “truth.” One meaning 3 is metaphysical. There are various ways to define that meaning: we say that truth refers to a mind- independent reality, or to the way things really are, or to an objective account of the case, or use other representationalist formulas. Even if we say that there is no truth, there are only truths, we are still usuallyinvoking metaphysical a conception of a thing out there or up there or in here that we are getting closer to or farther from. The other meaning of truth is ethical. Truth means honesty. I think we can waste a lot of time interpreting the attitude of the present administration toward truth as a metaphysical problem.It is not. It is an ethical problem. Does that mean that it does not bear on the mission of universities? On the contrary. It bears directly on our mission, and insofar as academics, whatever their views, can assert themselves as critics of the present political discourse, they should do so on ethical grounds, ones. epistemological not The pressing issue is whether are we individuallycommitted to norms of honesty and collectively committedto processes of social learning that rest them. on By social learning, mean we a circular process of aggregating relevant information, making indeterminate decisions, and updating civic knowledge. Civic knowledge, in turn, refers broadly to shared understandings about how circumstances. our In concerning evidence curated collectively interpret to a democracy, processes of social learning, anchored norms by for honest inquiry and argument, should knit citizens more or together, less, even as endure. contestation and disagreements theIn contemporary United States, knitting that process of shared social learning has ceased operate. to Our problem is not, fundamentally, one of misinformation, but oftenof what we call in our contemporary vocabulary faction. called generation founding the what and polarization, what follows,In consider we the problem faction poses for social learning in America and can what we do fix to it. First,examinewe the limits of responses misinformation to adopt that a metaphysical strategy and are characterized attempts by a to draw bright line between is what true and what is false, or strip to political language of rhetoric and self-interest. Uncertainty plagues political judgments and attempts to ground decision-ground to attempts and judgments political Uncertainty plagues making with only stable metaphysical truths are doomed fail. to Precisely because uncertainty, of that democracies must work instead achieve to the democratic Valid can. they that knowledge democratic of forms valid most knowledge consists of broadly shared diagnoses of circumstances and to adherence through developed them, to response in prescriptions shared that institutions and honesty, to commitment the including inquiry, of norms deliberation. and conversation processes of in together people many bring Sound democratic knowledge is, in short, simply what results from healthy learning. social processes of United contemporary the in politics and journalism confronting problem The States is its not at core the intermingling of fact and fiction, not a confusion of propaganda with hard-bitten, fact-based policy but rather the breakdown social learning across valid diverse, facilitate disagreeing institutions of that groups. Historically, the institutions facilitate that social learning, for example anchors as also served universities, have schools,newspapers, and colleges for shared norms of inquiry, including for the aforementioned commitment

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Is Internet Misinformation Ruining American Democracy? knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 5 to honesty, for ideologically diverse populations. Transformations in our our in Transformations populations. diverse ideologically for honesty, to media ecosystem instance, (for the disappearance of local and regional newspapers), changes in our residential patterns (by whichwe are more disintegration the and groupings), ideological in concentrated densely of the credibility colleges of many and universities fromthe perspective of conservatives undermined have theinstitutions whose job it is to broker the debate within the citizenry about what different people see as credible or incredible. Under thesenew conditions, they no longer play practices and institutions without Moreover, role. mediating effective an streams conversational opposed ideologically as debate—and broker that flow separately from one another—citizens themselves fall habitsinto keepthat them from learning The from current each other. discussion of misinformation reflects not only the absence of institutional contexts of mediation but also an ethos in which are we intellectually less able bridge to the divide between what different people see as credible or incredible in order learn to from The bright one another. lines prevent draw we us from taking seriously the disagreements of others and from seeing why what looks so evident us to often looks propagandalike or ignorance others, to and vice versa. This, in turn, only polarizes us further. orderIn see to the that problem face we is faction, not misinformation itself, come to grips have to we with the slippery question of how democracies secure the knowledge resources they need for good functioning. the In first offer we one, section In question. this explore we paper, the of sections two a case study of a 20th century effortto fightback against propaganda and practices and needs knowledge the about lessons some failure from its draw of democracies. section In two, build we on those lessons limn to the contours of democratic knowledge. will We comesee to the that most basic task of social learning in a democracy is help to dissolve the force of faction. Recognizing this will us take the into terrain of being able identify to potential solutions the to situation in which currently we find ourselves. The ethical and political, not metaphysical, problem of faction sends us back oneto of the architects of our contemporary representative democracy and a powerful analyst of threat faction’s democratic to health, James Madison. The third section of the paper reviews the Madisonian approach resolving to the of diversity geographic the saw Madison Although faction. of problem the young country as a major potential source of faction, he also geography saw itself, working in tandem with our representative institutions, as part of the diverse the of dispersal demographic the that expected Madison solution. American public salutary would have effects on nicheextreme or viewpoints, process a through passed they correction as and mediation their requiring federal the in representation of layer from one transmission, multi-stage of A premisesystem constitutional another. to of Madison’s architecture for to solution a provide would itself geography that was republic new the national moderating and moderated emergence of the facilitate and faction wide a to appeal representatives and citizens requiring by understandings

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Is Internet Misinformation Ruining American Democracy? knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 6

st . New York: 4 underminingour ability learn to from one century technologies of mass communication and 21 th In practice, however, this diversity was deeply constrained. Madison’s republican framework was Hill and Wang. Wang. and Hill 4 prefaced on the exclusion of all but propertied, white men. The system defended in Papers the Federalist incorporated a wide number of concessions to slaveholding interests – or actively supported an economicsystem based on human ownership – and was prefaced on an ascriptive racial and gender hierarchy. This is not to say the democratic promise of the Madisonian model is irreparably tainted, but to acknowledge the circumscribed pluralism Madison imagined it would face, and did face, in practice during the 18th and 19th centuries. See Waldstreicher, David. Ratification to 2010. Revolution From Constitution: Slavery’s Yet thanks 20 to Yet range of people unlike themselves. unlike people of range century social media, geography no longer fulfills the function Madison Madison function the fulfills longer no geography media, social century holds. longer The no it elegant, was solution While Madison’s anticipated. partisan emergence mistruths,dangerous increasing explicitly the of and distance of the two political parties’ viewpoints from points one another, toward the unravelling of Madisonian wisdom. Faction chokes and blocks the functioning of a democracy by knowledge. democratic of proper development the hindering by another, the to alternatives explore we section, final and fourth the in Consequently, strategies new proposing faction, of problem the for solution Madisonian for building an architecture support to social learning in the United States. out lay potentialWe solutions the to problems of the present moment. These embed to need we that namely favorite, current a beyond go proposals the basic tools of media literacy in education. Importantly, media literacy can’t in itself deliver the patterns of conversation dissolvethat the forces of polarization. look Instead we a set to of institutional innovations might that of structures and practices of reconstruction a for architecture an provide social learning. As it happens, suchan architecture will also deliver media literacy in that, function to effectively, this architecture must anchor the norms processes make that of social learning healthy: a commitment to honesty, an understanding of how curate to high quality evidence, and skill at logical argumentation. These norms are the foundation for media literacy. For this our inspiration essay, is James Madison and his analysis of how to thwart the problem of faction. This is the most important task in front of us in our new age of disinformation.

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Is Internet Misinformation Ruining American Democracy? knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 7 . New . New York: A.A. Knopf, pp. 221-222. . Cambridge: Cambridge University University Cambridge Cambridge: . After the war, concerns about subversive subversive about concerns After war, the 6

8

5 . Manchester: Manchester University Press. Sproule, J. Michael. Propaganda 1997. and . Princeton: Princeton University Press. Olson, Lynne. 2013. Roosevelt, Angry Days: Those The growth of radio provided both the conditions for nationwide mass 7 See Brinkley, Alan. 1983. Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression See Gary, Brett. 1999. The Nervous Liberals: Propaganda Anxieties from World War I to the Cold War. Lasswell, Harold D. 1927. Propaganda Technique in the World War Ewen, Stuart. 1996. PR!: A Social History of Books. Spin. Basic York: New campaigns totalitarian by governments in the Soviet Union and Germany kept these anxieties alive, while the rise of the advertising and public relations American further into manipulation opinion systematic industries integrated life. In the 1930s,In late department store Edward magnate Filene and a small confidencein in collapse the responded reformers to educational circle of the epistemic practices of American democracy founding by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in hopes of teaching young people identify to and culture and a platform for divisive, populist figuresFather Charles like Coughlin, Francis Huey Long, Townshend, and Charles Lindbergh develop to followings. national The systematic deployment of domestic propaganda and wide proliferation proliferation wide and propaganda domestic of deployment systematic The of British and German propaganda within the United States during World I promptedWar a moral crisis about how easily the public been had fervor. nationalist into manipulated 5 6 New York: Columbia University Press. Messinger, Gary S. 1992. British Propaganda and the State in the First World War Democracy: The American Experience of Media and Mass Persuasion Press. 7 8 Ours is not the first erato face an epistemic crisis, a collapse of confidence in our procedures for coming know to things, in the of an upheaval in wake information consumption. political Writing in scientist 1927, Harold Lasswell precipice. a Systematic democracies nearing industrial advanced saw manipulation of mass opinion, he argued, would supplant violence as the dominant means of state control, “a concession the to rationality of the modern world… the mass If will be free of chains of iron, it must accept its chains of silver.” Lindbergh and America’s Fight Over World War II. New York: Random House. THETRUE, THEFALSE, A POLITICAL: THE AND CASE STUDY York: Vintage Books. Amenta, Edwin. 2006. When Movements Matter: The Townsend Plan and the Rise of Social Security 1.

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION The True, the False, and the Political: A Case Study knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 8 pp. 3-6.

, Filene Filene 15 Immediately Immediately 12 But another guest, Columbia Teacher’s College College Teacher’s guest, Columbia another But 10 134. , p. When the group met Filene, again in New York, frustrated 13 believed that the “conflicting opinions, conflicting propaganda” propaganda” conflicting opinions, “conflicting the that believed 11 Junior-Senior High School Clearing House 7 (5): 310-313, p. 313. Leaving Miller and the groundwork Mather lay Institute’s to and To this end, Filene on met March with To 1937, 29, adult education pioneer 14 . New York: Simon and Schuster. 9 Bernays, Edward L. 1965. Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of Public Relations Counsel Edward L. Among them were two of the most influential historians of the time, James Shotwell T. and Charles Sproule, Propaganda Ibid, p. 130. Miller, Clyde R. 1936. “The Intelligent Teacher’s Guide to Understanding of Current Issues.” Junior- Miller’s awareness in the dangers of propaganda stemmed from personal experience. As a cub Filene, Edward A. 2008. Speaking of Change: A Selection of Speeches and Articles. Madison, WI: The with the slow pace of progress and impressed Miller’s by blueprint, offered Miller$10,000 a grant on the spot. By the fall, Filene and Miller agreed on a name – the Institute for Propaganda Analysis – and funding for three years. following the meeting with Filene, he began drafting an outline for an to propaganda” and opinion, public education, of study the for “institute achieve just that. 12 Senior High School Clearing House 10 521-525. (9): 521. See also Miller, Clyde R. 1933. “The Cure-All for Everything?” 15 Beard, both out of Columbia. Other board members included sociologist Robert S. Lynd (who has recentlypublished his second Middletown study with wife Helen Lynd), social psychologist Hadley Cantril, Georgisteconomist and future Senator from Illinois Paul Douglas, and Deweyite education theorist E.C. Lindeman. 13 14 9 Filene Research Institute, p. 160. 10 Bernays 11 reporter during the Miller war, become famous for reporting socialist leader Eugene Debs to U.S. Attorneyfor violation of the Espionage Act and sitting as a central witness for his 1918 prosecution. Miller later recanted his rose-tinted view of the war after seeing it for himself as a member of the Army’s Education Corps. Upon his return, Miller sought a pardon for Debs from Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding, who commuted the elderly socialist’s sentence upon becoming president in 1921. Sproule, Propaganda resist information manipulation. A close look at the origins, trajectory, and and trajectory, origins, the at look close A manipulation. information resist failure of this effort will help us see the limits of tryingto counter the rise of misinformation primarily seeking by disseminate to bright-line accounts of the difference between is what metaphysically true or false. Over the course of the 1930s, Filene become had increasingly worried that American educational system left had young peoplepoorly equipped face to the challenge posed totalitarian by ideology in an increasingly complex world. The solution,he believed, could not be found “merely in more education of the traditional and customary kind”; instead, education needed now be to in part unlearning “confident knowledge of thingsceased have that to be true.” Kirtley Mather and an eclectic collection of business leaders and educators discussto thetopic of “education The for democracy.” meeting was most by accounts a bust:One attendee, public relations Edward innovator Bernays, described the room as “smoke leading laden and Filene heavy,” “to nod off in little snatches of sleep.” assemble a board of prominent social scientists and educators, of democratic life required cultivating an ethos of “public enlightenment” enlightenment” “public of ethos an required cultivating life democratic of around the potentially manipulative character of information. professor left Clyde energized. Miller, propaganda and education literacy media of proponent early an Miller, education,

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION The True, the False, and the Political: A Case Study knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 9 20

17 Thus, “there 16 Initial publicity Initial kicked 19 Writing the first issues of . 21 , “New Columbia Institute.” Columbia “New , . Second, it would provide materials and and materials provide Second, would it 18 . New York Herald Tribune . Oct. 4, 1937. “New Columbia Institute to Analyze Propaganda: Agency Will . Oct. 10, 1937. “PROPAGANDA STUDY IS AIM OF INSTITUTE.” New York Times. The Clearing House 11 (2): 69-77, p. 70. Quoted in Lee, Elizabeth Briant and Alfred McClung Lee. 1979. “The Fine Art of Propaganda Analysis New York Herald Tribune New York Herald Tribune New York Times New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin Miller, Clyde R. and Violet Edwards. 1936. “The Intelligent Teacher’s Guide through Campaign 20 – Then and Now.” ETC: A Review of General Semantics 36 (2): 117-127, p. 120. 21 Propaganda.” 18 19 Miller envisioned a two-prong approach. First, the Institute would publish publish would two-prong Institute a First, the envisioned approach. Miller [readers] whereby “methods detailing newsletter educational monthly a becomemay proficient” in scrutinizing the diversity of information they lives. own their in encountered off a flurry ofinterest favorable and coverage. TheFrancisco San News editorialized the that teachings Institute’s were “one more weapon for democracy in the ceaseless battleagainst obfuscation and special interest.” 16 Help Public Sort Out ‘Babel of Voices.’” New York Herald Tribune 17 While there goals, was great Miller’s enthusiasm thinking for the IPA’s around propaganda was fuzzy best. at Most of his published work and teaching focused on practical propaganda analysis tactics for young people and reliedon unsystematic heuristics and anecdotes rather than a concept operating His foundation. methodological or theoretical coherent of propaganda was broad and unsubtle: “opinion any or action intended to influence the thoughts andactions of others.” traveled to France, where he contracted pneumonia and died suddenly on on suddenly died and pneumonia contracted he where France, to traveled by backed October, nonetheless in launched The Institute 26. September philanthropicFilene’s Good Will and Fund the deceased businessman’s word. the preliminaryIn Institute’s announcements the to press, it laid out its thesis: America “is beset a confusion by of conflicting propaganda, a Babel of charges, counter-charges,voices, warnings, assertions contradictions, and newsreel.” and press, through radio, continuously us assailing is especial today need for propaganda analysis… if American citizens are a clear have understandingto of conditions and do what to about them, they must be able recognize to propaganda, analyze, to and appraise to it.” the Propaganda Analysis newsletter singlehandedly while still holding down down holding still while singlehandedly newsletter Analysis Propaganda the his Columbia job, Miller lightly adapted a framework of “seven common propaganda devices” from a paper he written had theyear before for their second American newsletter. citizenswere to be taughtto recognize: “name- “card folks,” “plain “glittering“testimony,” generalities,”calling,” “transfer,” support for study units in public and private high schools around the country. secure to connections professional and personal their leveraged board The a number of pilot programs in schools in four states.

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION The True, the False, and the Political: A Case Study knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 10 28 . . Columbus, OH: Columbus, OH: . According to According to 27 as follows: as By 1941, the Institute 25 These numbers belied considerable considerable belied These numbers 26

24 Pithy and memorable, the “seven neat, easily 22 , p. 135. quickly became the IPA’s calling quickly card and remain became the IPA’s 4 (1): 135-143, pp. 135-137. 23 . Rhetoric and Public Affairs Public and Rhetoric Name-Calling: associating people or policies with good or bad things or names. “freedom, truth, justice, like concepts vague with objects associating Generalities: Glittering education, democracy in a large, general way.” symbols. religious or national of prestige” and sanction, “authority, the with objects linking Transfer: celebrities. or leaders business like elites from endorsements on reliance Testimony: Plain Folks: associating oneself or a subject with “ordinary people” or “the people” broadly. Card Stacking: selectively elevating and omitting facts to spin issues. Bandwagon: appeals to crowd mentality or reliance on peer pressure. Ibid, p. ii. Fine, Benjamin. Feb. 21, 1941. “PROPAGANDA STUDY IN STILLS SKEPTICISM IN 1,000,000 PUPILS.” Sproule, J. Michael. 2001. “Authorship and Origins of the Seven Propaganda Devices: A Research Fine, Benjamin. Aug. 4, 1940. “Hails Analysis of Propaganda as Enlightening.” New York Times The seven devices were characterized as a set of rhetorical strategies deployed by propagandists to Quoted in Sproule, Propaganda Dale, Edgar and Norma Vernon. 1940. Propaganda Analysis: An Annotated Biography

understood principles” understood Indeed, the IPA’s work in classroomsIndeed, was met the with IPA’s almost universal enthusiasm. By August 1940,the number of schools participating in Institute programs swelled had 650 to highschools, 350 adult groups, and 30 3,000 high to material distributing was Institute the schools,elementary and country. the around schools elementary and schools boasted more than 1 million students taught using their materials, and more than 50 textbooks published in 1939 referenced Institute-backed research. Nearly 2,500 teachers were sending the institute monthly reports about student progress. Most reported positive results: “pupils are able think to more critically such in practices daily newspapers reading as magazines, or appraising radio news comment and listening classroom to or out-of-school discussions… They are less likely disregard to sources and pass on hearsay mandating began authorities educational local and States gossip.” and documents. Institute of use statewide the IPA’s most famous contribution to the study of communication. Educator Educator communication. of study the to contribution famous most IPA’s the affiliate,lauded Edgar Dale, Miller IPA later a for taking “a number of very complicated fallacies in logic and reduc[ing] them terms to a fourteen that understand.” can child old year 24 Note.” Note.” 22 short-circuit Analysis critical thinking. described Propaganda Miller in them 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 23 Ohio State University Bureau of Educational Research. 28 stacking,” and “bandwagon.” and stacking,” one estimate, there been had only two articles about propaganda literacy in national education journals in 1935. By 1938 there were and 35. 17 in in 1939, diversity in teachingmethods, including open discussions of current events, speeches, and efforts news self-reflection, or at of readings close alongside stereotypes. and propaganda about lessons straightforward 25 26 New York Times 27

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION The True, the False, and the Political: A Case Study knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 11

33 The , pp. 109-110. 32 . These criticisms would dog the the dog would criticisms These 30 , p. 150. , p. 147. Nor, DeVoto noted, justify could DeVoto the IPA why such Nor, ham- 29 The Institute did eventually publish an expose on the most 31 pp. 139-142. pp. Throughout 1938, the fell IPA victim to the very problems of non-rational, emotional, and interested DeVoto, Bernard. June 1938. “The Fallacy of Excess Interpretation.” Magazine Harper’s Sproule, Propaganda Special to the New York Times. Feb. 23, 1941. “DIES SCRUTINIZES PROPAGANDA STUDY: Inquiry into Sproule, Propaganda But the incident shattered illusions any from within and without IPA thethat was somehow above or outside the politics of itstime. other In words, the claim the that tools of logic could beIPA’s used clarify to once and for all the ostensibly sort some of and language propagandistic between distinction unsustainable. was language neutral politically problem more substantial a even-handedness became awkward This Institute throughout its short its lifetime. throughout Institute analysis IPA’s shortcomings the 1940s, the conceptual of the into Going began cast to a pall over its successes in the classroom. After the IPA extremism right-wing domestic into respected studies of series a conducted they whether over torn was Institute the Coughlin, Father demagogue and leftist investigating by coverage balance to obligated were intellectually reports Party subsequent Communist activity on dismayed groups. Miller’s liberalIPA. affiliates of the Going after the left, they worried, would into “play spreading government U.S. the within elements reactionary of hands” the with liberal progressive or identify “anything to anti-communist paranoia Communism.” 30 speech it sought to educate others about. The first outside submissions were Analysis to Propaganda “so charged in places with emotion” they needed to be rewritten. Board member Hadley Cantril, a psychologistresearching the effects of radio, worried about publishing criticism of the broadcasting industryhis own name. under And Good Will Fund administrators, fearing libel suits and under pressure Sproule, See corporations. private into from investigations high- against back pushed associates, business level Propaganda, 31 32 Expressions.” New Left-Wing York Alleged Times Follows Analysis for Institute the 33 29 Yet the seven devices’Yet simplicity was a double-edged sword. Inevitably, arguments from non- “propagandistic” effort fallacious distinguish the to the across argument political that revealed arguments rational fallacious, spectrum was textured with inaccuracies and simplifications, appeals to shortcuts argumentative responses, and non-rational and emotions the obscuring leaps of logic. Writing in Harper’s Magazine in 1938, Barnard blasted the principles Institute’s DeVoto as dangerously reductive. The IPA be speech could political any almost that broad so rendered propaganda classified as propagandistic under one of the devices. On itsown definitions, carrier “itself a be to appeared program anti-propaganda Institute’s the propaganda.” of prominent of these groups, the nascent House Un-American Activities Committee, Januaryin 1940. The articleattracted the Committee’s attention and anti-communista year later, investigators briefly launched an inquiry what theyinto described “frankly as the IPAs left-wing” activities. handedly rational political speech might be preferable to other more more other to preferable be might speech political rational handedly expressive forms of communicating. investigation was little more than a hatchet job andwas quickly dropped.

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION The True, the False, and the Political: A Case Study knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 12 . . New Haven: Yale While Miller and While and Miller 38 , 153-154., Similarly, Lewis Mumford argued 41 the book directed most of its firepower 39 . . New York: Random House, pp. 192-193. Early 1940 Propaganda saw Analysis editorHarold “The educational Institute’s efforts,” toldhe the New 37 34 But in the pages of Propaganda Analysis, Miller and , pp. 150-152. 35 . Nov. 28, 1938. “EXPECTS NAZI PROPAGANDA: C. R. Miller Says Hitlerites Seek to Divide In November In the of 1939, Institute criticized the Roosevelt 36 40 New York Times The book itself was a large financial drag on the IPA, leading to two cancellations of the newsletter and Lavine, Harold and James Weschler. 1940. War Propaganda and the United States Ibid, p. x. Many Americans still saw British propagandizing as the principle cause for American involvement Fine, “Hails.” “Hails.” Fine, Sproule, Propaganda Thompson, Dorothy. Dec. 29, 1939. “Anti-Propaganda Propagandists.” Globe Boston Daily

Americans by Hatreds.” The New York Times 35 36 in World War I. A November 1939 Gallup poll found that more Americans saw “America was the victim of propaganda and selfish interests” as driving intervention in that earlier conflict than any other cause.Gallup, George H. 1972. The Gallup Poll, Vol. 1 37 University Press/Institute for Propaganda Analysis, p. 47. 39 40 a flurry or complaints and canceled subscriptions. See Sproule, Propaganda 38 41 Lavine co-author Propaganda the War IPA-backed and the United States. it,In Lavine described Roosevelt as “inevitably most the active nation’s and significant propagandist” whose appealwas poweredby the newfound ability “to send his words winging around the globe” via radio. at interventionist efforts and downplayed German-backed isolationist isolationist German-backed efforts downplayed and interventionist at messages. administration for “propaganda for collective action with democracies” and and democracies” with action collective for “propaganda for administration urged readers be to wary of “slogans and propaganda devices” deployed theby U.S. government. The next month, the Institute accused both British other each blame to propaganda deploying of governments German and for starting the war. York Times,York served as the “best means of dealing with real or mythical Fifth Columnists.” the “suspicion of passion” represented by the Institute’s rational demeanor demeanor rational Institute’s the by represented passion” of “suspicion the board member E.C. Lindeman drew a distinction between propaganda in free and fascist states in their foreword, 34 In critics’In eyes, these attemptsat neutrality smacked of moral equivalency between the Allied powers and Nazism. Columnist Dorothy Thompson lambasted the project Institute’s as “a remarkable hoax... propaganda [that] presents itself as an anti-propaganda campaign.” The overemphasis on “runs debate: enlighten cool, not Thompson argued, to served manipulation, the Q.E.D. of [anti-propaganda groups’] argument, anyone who tries tell to you there are issues in this is war a propagandist and probably in the pay governments.” French or British the of when the IPA turnedwhen its the focus IPA the to in war Europe. the 1930s, In late Miller spoke out forcefully against German propaganda effortsto legitimate Nazi politics in America, and sow to discord “break[ing]by Americans up into dissenting groups.” his staffwere compelledto strike a more balancedtone. In June 1939, articleone IPA cast a British royal visit and exhibit in the Fair at World’s as attemptsto manipulate New York Americans into supporting the Allied effort, controversially to British comparing it propaganda during the first War. World

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION The True, the False, and the Political: A Case Study knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 13 48 (2): Even 42 Analyzing 44 . 568-573. 571. He pushed pushed He These critiques critiques These 46 43 45 , p. 162. 47 5 (2): 250-259. 250-251. (2): 5 Sproule, Propaganda Smith, Bruce Lannes. 1941. “Propaganda Analysis and the Science of Democracy.” Opinion Public Quoted in Sproule, “Authorship,” 139. Garber, William. 1942. “Propaganda Analysis What – To Sociology Ends?” of Journal American Mumford, Lewis. Apr. 29, 1940. “The Corruption of Liberalism.” The New Republic Ibid., p. 174. 42 43 44 Quarterly 45 240-245. 46 47 What the country needed was honest judgments about matters of principle principle of matters about judgments honest was country needed the What as well as fact, undertaken in conditions of uncertainty, and in response to imperfect argument, about the right pursue. to path Logic-chopping was not in itself sufficient to equip citizens for this work.Rather they needed processes of social learning, anchored norms by of honesty, understood as an ethical, not a metaphysicalAs thewar escalated, matter. this inadequacy Percy overseer Fund apparent. increasingly became model Institute the of S. Brown worried about “the repeated claims the that Institute itself is a propaganda agency” and its that detached coverage regarding the war “thegave impression Roosevelt that is as big a liar as Hitler.” had producedhad a “cold withdrawal from human feeling” rendered that it incapable of recognizing the “human devastation” posed Nazism. by the Institute pick to a side and join a liberal pro-interventionist alliance of non-profits, butwas rebuffed. By 1941, neutrality was increasinglyuntenable and the prospective role of propaganda analysis in wartime increasingly out either spring, the members resigned in board prominent Four unclear. of increasing conviction about the need for intervention or fear of courting further controversy. Six of eight invitations fill to vacated spots on the board were rejected. A proposed book deal with Harcourt Brace was flatlyturned see we down: it, “As the whole drift of public opinion for the near future will be representative. a wrote propaganda,” of examination critical from the away “Frankly, think I are we going see to an increase in the extent of the voluntary censorship already that prevails in a number of fields and a growling[sic] feeling propaganda that is not be to analyzed but is be to acted on in one way or another.” extended to the IPA’s methods: politicalextended scientist the to IPA’s Bruce Lannes Smith blamed the blunt Institute’s methods for producing an “attitude of generalized cynicism” failed that stimulate to moral reasoning about democratic values of openness and whether information was being used for good or ill. statements in terms of semantic devices “destroys their essence rather than than essence rather their “destroys devices semantic of terms in statements “The Garber: difference William argued between understanding,” yielding Roosevelt speaking and Hitler speaking is not basically one of propaganda techniques, but rather of different views of life, of differing approachesto dignity.” human mankind, to liberals Max like Lerner condemned the Institute for producing a “nation of detectives amateur looking for concealed propaganda in every effort to Americaawaken the to real nature of Nazi world strategy.”

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION The True, the False, and the Political: A Case Study knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 14 Rhet. 1359a 5-7). Knowledge Knowledge 50 Rhet. . do, the tools of logic and science can only help us make In the In January 1942 issue of Propaganda Analysis, 49 48 . Oct. 31, 1941. “Analysis of Propaganda Suspended for Duration: Institute Here . New York Herald Tribune This we owe to Aristotle. The realms of what is absolutely true and false belong to the realms of logic, Lee and Lee, p. 122. Miller continued to identify himself as a member of the Institute while testifying Mather signedadamantly off, high-mindedto the end: “I am reasonably sure couldwe obtained have money from interventionist sources but would we weight to had our analyseshave accordingly; it is possible, too, could we gottenhave money from isolationist sources, againbut our analyseswould be to had weighted. couldhave We not solicit or accept such money and still integrity.” our maintain 48 Fears Its Work May Hurt Defense Effort.” New York Herald Tribune 49 as a propaganda expert for some time after the Institute had become inactive. It is unclear whether he anticipated reopening the Institute after the See war. Starks, Louis. Sept. 1943. 17, “SAYS FOES EXPLOIT OUR RACE DIVISIONS: Clyde Miller Cites Japanese-Nazi Propaganda Based on Anti-Negro Discrimination.” Times York New 50 not deliberation: “We only deliberate about things which seem to admit of issuing in two ways; as for those things which cannot in the past, present, or future be otherwise, no one deliberates about them” ( 1357a 13). However, for questions of what we will informed predictions about consequences. But our predictive claims cannot a priori be evaluatedor as false. true They must be assessed on a different set of evaluative criteria belonging to rhetoric: whetherchoice a is advantageous or disadvantageous, noble or shameful, just or unjust ( This case reflects how the challenge of political debate is never merely the from manipulative the false, the from true the separating of matter a persuasive, the pure from the focus propagandic. there exclusively To is miss to the fundamental difficulty of political judgment, namely that evidence takes on its meaning and significance under the color of particular commitments of principle. What evidence will be curated and brought into a political debate in the first place is determinedby the moral commitments givethat some matters of fact greater salience than others.Key collective political judgments concern the just and the unjust; the advantageous and shameful. the and admirable the and disadvantageous, the By fall of 1941, the IPA had settled had By fall of 1941, the IPA under a cloud of political ill-will, shrinking revenues, and all but inevitable U.S. intervention in Europe. The remaining released Mather indefinitely. operations suspended board the members of a statement the to press on October 31 saying it that would not be “practical attemptto dispassionate analyses of the steps being to impresstaken the country with the seriousness of the crisis” and “Such that analyses, however objectively carried out,would naturally be utilized groups by opposing the main trend of events.” about the seven propagandistic devices mean citizens may that are not misled specific by demagogic figures, but it does not equip them to make sound decisions about how they and their fellow citizens should act, via the instrument of their political institutions. mission and Whilethe IPA’s educational work was admirable in respects, many it is this latterwork we must support understand and enable. To how do to that, will we need dive to democratic and learning social between relationship the into more deeply decision-making. turn topic that to We now.

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION The True, the False, and the Political: A Case Study knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 15 DEMOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE One of the oldest, hardest questions of political philosophy is how to and knowledge sound in grounded are decisions political that ensure sound judgment. The question The back dates Plato. to benefits of sound knowledge and judgment are obvious. Just as engineers who know what they are doing build bridges do that not fall down, politicians equipped with sound knowledge and judgment a few other (and virtues courage like a at prosperity security, deliver and to expected be may moderation) and people. their to minimum, But every form of regime is flawed in this regard. None can quite seem to guarantee delivery of this as an example, result. monarchy. Perhaps a Take, society has a wise monarch, who renders decisions characterized not only wisdomby but also coherence by what of succession? and consistency. Yet a monarchIf gives birth fools, to Or aristocracies, take what then? regimes arethat governed a defined by elite. The elite is a small, closed group. Much is invested in their education, yet what this education cannot do is opinion. of factions different into splintering and disagreement forestall The challenges of uncertainty in the political realm and the entanglement of personal and public interest ensure disagreement that will arise. Plato sought solve to the problem of the place of knowledge, truth, and sound but “philosopher-kings,” of education the through politics in judgment such a solution is imaginable only when rule is indeed concentrated in the hands of a single individual. As soon as no it is in the or hands many, of a few, known mode of education can prepare leaders eradicate that in the ways emergence of faction. Contemporary oligarchies, China like or Saudi Arabia, deeply elite ruling their within disagreements keeping succeeded in only have cloaked. Expert rule, while promising more refined sortings of truth from about disagreements deep solve cannot judgment, better thus and fiction how apply to judgment that in contexts of pluralism. This reality imply does total epistemic not, however, relativism or a free-for- all where whichever faction has the tightest grip on power gets impose to its judgment. Rather it underscores the fact the that road sound to judgment is This knowledge. over competition a through lies necessarily politics in especially true in democracies. The challenges of information brought the to fore the by Internet age not best understood as an epistemic problem. They are not a problem merely of the need cultivate to expertise. They are better and competition managing of problem problem, a social a as understood democratic into goes that knowledge fragmented of range vast The faction. 2.

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Democratic Knowledge knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 16

52 . New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, pp. 16-17. In other In words, our various forms of shortcuts 53 . Princeton: Princeton University, pp. 10-11. Lippmann’s insight Lippmann’s was the social character of political 51 In one classic example, at a Texas rally during the 1976 presidential primary, President Gerald Ford Achen, Chris H. and Larry M. Bartels. (2016). Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Lippmann, Walter. 1998. Opinion Public are not idiosyncratic; they do not reflect the habits or proclivities of this or individual.that They are social. Consequently, when confront we settled Lippmann worried that our reliance on cognitive short-cuts—biases, cognitive on reliance our that worried Lippmann populations democratic like—make the and judgments, encode that emotions vulnerable manipulation. to This is the sort of worry typically that lies behind the effortto tamp down the power of propagandists.Yet the sloppy, imperfect nature of ordinary human reasoning also generates a different day-to-day valuable shortcuts, provide which reasoning problem. Our efficienciesnavigating in our worlds, grow out of our immediate social specific to tethered judgments often represent social and environments communities meaning. of 51 52 Government Responsive 53 was caught on camera biting into a corn husk wrapped tamale at a rally. It wasn’t until after the first bite Ford was told the corn husk was not meant to be eaten, but as a wrapper. The incident made it to national news and was widely interpreted as not just ignorance of Mexican culture, but of the issues near to Mexican voters. Ford eventually lost Texas. judgment call what – we democratic knowledge – is itself shaped the by has Internet-age The interpretations. conflicting among competition ongoing faction for ripe competition , epistemic this make that produced conditions the usage ofpolitics for the aggressive pursuit of self-interest the at expense of collective ends. This is our challenge. As the suggests, case of the IPA our age is not thefirst to need to cometo grips with this challenge. Where IPA the wrongly diagnosed the crisis of propaganda as an epistemic problem, some other analytical work done earlier in the 20th century can help us clarify the nature of the work confronted that them then and us now. The first and most important point to is recognize the difference of kind between expert knowledge and the sorts of knowledge most that of us need work to with most of the time in coming judgments make to about politics. the In face of the complexity of our world, all we use imperfect cognitive shortcuts it. navigate to Writing in the 1920s, reporter and political the that recognize must we that suggested Lippmann Walter commentator “pictures in our heads” can only rarely be accurate reflections of our social the levelworld: of social “At life, what is called the adjustment of man to his environment takes place through the medium of fictions…For the real environment is altogether too big, too complex, and too fleeting for direct acquaintance.” knowledge. That is, that the contents of people’s interpretations of social social of interpretations people’s of contents the is, that That knowledge. reality were not freestanding, but were contingent on their social context, powerholders. interested of designs the consumed, and they information the fact this with grapple to failure theory’s democratic about view Lippmann’s has attracted sophisticatedadherents for nearly a century – from political to later generation a Downs Anthony and Schumpeter Joseph economists economics searching behavioral “realist” and psychology scientists in social out the “inevitable cognitive human limits ability of politics.” in

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Democratic Knowledge knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 17

56

21 (3): , ed. Edwin R. Context 54 194. Lasswell refused view to 55 . New York: Whittlesey House, p. 325. Granted groups many that 58 . Vol. 5. New York: Routledge., p. More specifically, individuals’ knowledge about about knowledge individuals’ More specifically, 57 , p. 19. Mannheim, Ideology Mannheim, Karl. 1955). Ideology Mannheim, Karl. 1955). and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Lasswell, Harold. 1936. Politics: Who Gets What, When, How Lasswell, Harold. 1927. “The Theory of Political Propaganda.” Review Science Political American Mannheim, Karl. 1952. “Competition as a Cultural Phenomenon.” InEssays on the Sociology of

54 patterns of social division,we are also likelyto confront different strategies problems. political and social through reasoning for This explains why a given audience—grounded in a specific social context— people to can whoappear, are situated in a different social context,to be Themanipulated symbols their by leader. and meanings work that with one group be transparently may fallacious or illogical another to group. Political scientist Harold Lasswell, seeking respond to worries, Lippmann’s to attemptedto map the practice of opinion manipulation a onto wider range of institutions operating with and against one another in the effortto shape propaganda that recognized He groups. particular of practices public would be “conducted with symbols which are utilized as far as possible by symbols those on depend would effect its that but counter-elite,” and elite relationship with the “changing total context” of the audience. the world incorporated the “crystallization of the experiences” of groups to which they belonged “coherent make to the fragments of the reality of inner psychic, as well as objective external experience, and placeto them with reference a certain to complex of conduct.” was not an overarchingtotality, but rather “the standard meanings of the groups of which the individual within which is a member,” the “propagandist must redefine the significance of social objects.” Our interpretations of social life, history, politics, identities, even “ordinary from withinworld the understanding at attempts thought” were everyday the world and were thus “incapable of an absolute interpretation” outside of a particular framework of cultural meanings and experiences in which the embedded. was interpreter propaganda in the pejorative light it come that had on take to after World War I and The retains perpetual today. influenceexternal of actors on individual’s subjective views was instead evidence opinions that were not freestanding or independent of the social and political processes they that informed. What accountLippmann’s of mass opinion got wrong was it that wasn’t really mass all: itat was a patchwork of perspectives shaped group by life and disparate experiences. social Hungarian sociologist Karl Mannheim made a similar argument in the first half of the as 20th a starting century. Taking point the question: “How it is same the with concerned thought-processes human identical that possible argued Mannheim world,” that of conceptions produce divergent world much of our thinking was a product of social life, not scientific investigation. existed and their experiences varied widely across time and space, many many space, and time widely across varied experiences their and existed 55 627-631, p. 631. Lasswell, Harold D. 1937. “Propaganda.” The Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences A. Seligman and Alvin Saunders Johnson. Vol. 12. New York: Macmillan Company, p. 524. 56 58 Harcourt, Brace, & Company, p. 8. 57 Knowledge: Collected Works of Karl Mannheim

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Democratic Knowledge knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 18 . Cambridge: Harvard Harvard Cambridge: . Representation Representation 62 Yet insofar as are we Yet 63 At the At same time, elites 61 With the collapse of traditional monopolies of authority over over authority of monopolies traditional of collapse the With 59 105 (1): 100-114. The pluralism of views in the public sphere of a democracy flows 60 Mannheim, “Competition,” p. 207. Disch, pp. 110-112, Mansbridge, pp. 516-517. pp. Mansbridge, 110-112, pp. Disch, Ibid, p. 3. Garsten, Bryan. 2006. Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgment Disch, Lisa. 2011. “Toward a Mobilization Conception of Democratic Representation.” Political American

truth (Mannheim the had Catholic Church in mind), political order to had grapple with “a multi-polar conception of the world which tries do to justice theto same set of newly emerging facts from a number of different points view.” of from social diversity, not merely from, who has access say, truth to and expertise and who does not. None of this is deny to political that leaders often traffic in misinformation someandat that points in time, our own in see particular, we increasing frequency Nor is it deny of such to some that behavior. remarks can be irrefutably identified as false, regardless of the community of meaning that one uses starting as one’s point of reference. The point is rather call to attentionto the degreeto which the opportunity to traffic in misinformation depends in the first instance on existencethe of distinct communities of meaning and opinion within a society, and on the impermeability of those another. one communities to This fragmentation of social a and epistemic landscape need not, however, doom a democracy epistemic to failure. Democracies typically try convert to this patchwork of perspectives the into basis for sound knowledge and aspects familiar most the of One contestation. political through judgment for groups between competition electoral is democracy representative of political office. At the heart of this is the symbiotic relationship between elites who seek public support in the struggle for power with other elites, intellectual, political, on dependent are who individuals of mass the and or media elites transmit to them to information that they to need make to reasoned political decisions. Political learning occurs as a reflexive process: Elite discourse entails, as one scholar writes, a “dual motive” “educate to constituents as they recruit them positions to work that elites’ to own advantage in an interparty struggle for power.” cannot conjure new worldviews from scratch. Rhetoric, another scholar tells us, is the process of persuading individuals new take to actions or adopt beliefs they would otherwise not have connecting by those actions beliefs to they already hold and symbols already familiar them. to dependent on elites for political information, our perceptions of the social (and campaigns(and for it) takes on a reflexive in which actionselitecharacter, are taken in response public to opinion and existing beliefs, but also takes on an active role in “mobilizing” it toward new ends. University Press, pp. 3-7. 63 59 60 61 Science Review 62 worldviews would coexist once. at Persons “act with and against one another in diversely organized groups, and while doing so they think with and against another.” one

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Democratic Knowledge knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 19 . Palo Alto: Stanford Fifty Years if Trends in Americans’ : Others recognize voters that 67 31 (3): 467-492. In a recent In example, a February 2017 poll recorded 64 seem irrelevant the to task. Nor is such factual , Feb. 27, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/upshot/one-third-dont-know- 2017. 27, Feb. , Political scientists and theorists have documented a number number a documented have theorists and scientists Political . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 66

65 government, politics, or policy. Will knowing about the number number the about knowing Will politics, policy. or government, . New Haven: Yale University Press. Some suggest that vast ignorance dooms the prospect of New York Times Druckman, James N. 2014. “Pathologies of Studying Public Opinion, Political Communication, and and Communication, Political Opinion, Studying Public of “Pathologies 2014. N. James Druckman, Delli-Carpini, Michael X. and Scott Keeter. 1999. What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Dropp, Kyle and Brendan Nyhan. “One-Third Don’t Know Obamacare and Affordable Care Act Are the Page, Benjamin I. and Shapiro, Robert Public 1992. Y. Rational The

Policy Preferences Policy of ways voters reasonable make of ways choice with only limited information. For one, some hold citizens’ that swirl of ignorance and “nonattitudes” about policy balances out through a “miracle of aggregation,” leaving us with a rational collective made up of irrational individuals. achieve “low information rationality” using by a wide variety of heuristics, render to knowledge contextual shortcuts, background and intellectual Political Communication Political Responsiveness.” Democratic obamacare-and-affordable-care-act-are-the-same.html?_r=0 66 University Press. 65 Same.” 67 popular democracy entirely. For an account that throws the baby out with the bath water, see Somin, Ilya. (2013). Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter 64 Matters world will be entangled with their strategic agendas. strategic their with entangled be will world This represents one of the central puzzles of democratic knowledge: while process the value, epistemic its democracy gives ideas diverse harnessing whichby those ideas are harnessed and the perspectives are that brought to concerned more competition of modes in enmeshed are themselves table the with winning power than with good judgment. How can these processes knowledge? democratic valid generate One argumentis they that simply don’t. is long a It running concern of political scientists the that vast majority of Americans are astoundingly is ignorance this government.Whether about facts basic of ignorant “rational,” or inevitable is beyond the point. For close years, 70 to survey after survey has found while that most voters can namethe president a given at time, considerably fewer know which party controls the House or Senate, can name the three branches of government, or identify specific policies currently up for debate. These numbers are, of course, deeply concerning. But the kinds of knowledge facts knowing to reducible aren’t judgment political sound to relevant about of representatives in the House or their procedure for bringing forth amendments on the floor be helpful in selecting a good representative? Such facts themselves knowledge necessarily indicative of good political judgment or well-formed well-formed or judgment political good of necessarily indicative knowledge preferences. that 35that percent of respondents reported the that Affordable Care Act and Obamacare were either different or theythat didn’t and know, 45 percent said they that did not know if the A.C.A would be repealed were Obamacare repealed.

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Democratic Knowledge knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 20

Elite Elite 70 . New 69 97 (4): make – it – it make of democratic democratic of . Chicago: University University Chicago: . ). The). Democratic Dilemma: Heuristics based on on based Heuristics 68 . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cambridge Cambridge: .

71 American Journal of Political Science 45 (2): 410-424. . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Popkin, Presidential in Persuasion and Samuel Communication L. 1994. Voter: Reasoning The Popkin, pp. 44-71. See also Lupia, Arthur, and McCubbins, Mathew D. (1998 Zaller, John. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion American Political Science Review Science Political American Representation.” “Rethinking 2003. Jane. Mansbridge,

rhetoric plays a well-documented and central role in political learning. political role in central and well-documented a plays rhetoric past experiences stand-in that for more complicated costly) (and data about policies or platformsallow voters reasoned make to not (if fully informed) exogenous. wholly preferences were their if would they choicesthan Furthermore, a “constructivist” turn among some scholars has even seized seized even has scholars some “constructivist” among Furthermore, a turn on the idea the that contingency of opinion can serve a source competence rather than a symptom of incompetence. Legislators and political elites, in this on take view, an “active” role “in searching out and values, problems, social of perceptions and attitudes creating” sometimes vision. political and Campaigns 69 68 complex political debates more into clear choices. Asthese points suggest, the quality of democratic judgments is not reducible theto possession of facts about government or current politics. As Aristotle notes, so far as politics deals with action – choices may we that is concerned with the indeterminate domain of judgment rather than the the than rather judgment of domain indeterminate the concerned with is factual democratic or logical. deliberation Rather, aims for the felicitous or advantageous, with the to an eye possibility apparent any that truths hold we in the present be in may flux in the future. While knowledge of ongoing affairs and analysis of past decisions be useful, may they are only one valuable input. diversity the with knowledge identify democratic we tradition, this Following about facts life: democratic in action political underlie that understandings of government and current affairs,yes, but also the full range of perspectives held civic by actors about how solve to problems, their evaluations of the status quo, perspectives about political events, and their full practical life democratic about knowledge is knowledge Democratic judgment. isthat drawn from practical experience living in a democratic society. Philosopher of “social Hilary of intelligence,” uses term similar Putnam a the collection of each individuals “ability plan to conduct, learn to relevant facts, experiments, make to and profit to from the planning, the facts, and Can Citizens Learn What They Really Need Know? University Press; Kuklinski, To Cambridge Cambridge: James H., Paul J. Quirk, Jennifer Jerit, and Robert Rich. F. (2001). “The Political Environment and Citizen Competence.” 70 515-528. Urbinati, Nadia. Genealogy and 2006. Principles Democracy: Representative of Chicago Press. Stone, Decision-Making Deborah. Political of Art The 2012. Paradox: Policy The York: Norton W.W. & Company. Russell Hardin argues that the contingency and elite dependence of public opinion only increases the incentive to remain uninformed, as it weakens the notion that informed voting could produce government responsive to established public interests or mandates. From this standpoint,ignorance is still “almost logically deducible from the nature of knowledge and its role in democracy.” Andyet, while Hardin’s view importantly reflects the social character of information neglects that in representation democratic democratic of model principal-agent straightforward a on relies systems, still it the plurality of institutions that shape and structure discourse. Hardin, Russell. 2000. “Democratic SocialEpistemology Accountability.” and Philosophy and Policy 17 (1): 110-127. 71

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Democratic Knowledge knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 21 35 519-530, (4): This knowledge could not be 74 . Chicago: Swallow Press, p. 207. 73 John Dewey argued it that was the inclusion 75 Similarly, theorists of low-information rationality have have rationality low-information of theorists Similarly, Profit here does not referto material benefit accrued 76 72 5 (3): 9-23. as knowledge. Friedrich Hayek famously argued that great deal of of deal great that argued famously Hayek Friedrich knowledge. as politics or governments per se, nor does it need necessarily fit to Dewey, John. 1954. The Public and its Problems Hayek, “Use of Knowledge,” p. 520. Page and Shapiro, pp. 18-19, 26. Putnam, Hillary. (1989). Reconsideration “A of Deweyan Democracy.” Review Law California Southern Hayek, A. 1945. F. “The Use of Knowledge in Society”. Review Economic American pp. 521-522; Hayek, A. 2002. F. “Competition as a Discovery Procedure.” Austrian of Journal Quarterly Economics 75 76 through the exercise of these faculties, but, in a Deweyan sense, an to Democratic use. and experimentation through faculties those of expansion knowledge, in our sense, includes also the diverse array of processes through which come we know to know what we and our place as knowers in a social system, all linked up inthe process knowledge’s of that application and the updating knowledge of that accounting by for new information and the unforeseen consequences of our actions. Scholars and Page Shapiro argue that, when taken in aggregate, “collective public opinion as measured in surveys tends be to based on, and responsive to, all available information.” of knowledge detailed have Americans most that “pure fantasy” it’s While or positions on most policyquestions, “many people exposed bits to [are] and pieces of advocacy and expertise” and use “these scrapsof information formto a tentative opinion.” While individuals get things may wrong or misinformation,be by swayed in aggregate, “so long as these errors are randomly distributed, use [they]will make of all available information and policies.” appropriate the choose systematized, centralized, or known a “single to mind” precisely because it was directly connected individuals’ to personal experiences. The chief problem of social systems, he argued, was “the utilization of knowledge not given anyone to in its totality.” 63 1971-1697, (6): p. 1683. 73 74 72 our traditional epistemological or scientific understanding of what even even what of understanding scientific or epistemological traditional our counts the was questions distributional and organizational for information relevant “knowledge of particular circumstances of time and place” individuals that economic choices. when making relied on As important is what counts as relevant information. need It not be about the experiments.” the shown how local experiences – changes in the price of gas, local news for information valuable contain – neighbors with conversations and stories, reasoned choices.making was majoritarianIt democracy’s great innovation turn to this irreducible competition among ideas and the circular process of social learning into of those who are affectedby a problem, and thus uniquehad insight, that of groups than solving problems and defining at better democracy made experts: “The man who wears the shoe knowsbest it that pinches and where it pinches, even if the expert shoemaker is the best judge of how the trouble remedied.” be to is

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Democratic Knowledge knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 22 character

80 More simply, simply, More 79 Furthermore, this convergent convergent Furthermore, this 78 The most basic task of social 77 , can acquire real nuggets of knowledge . New York: Columbia University Press, p. 165. Boston: Beacon Press, p. 3. . Berkley: University of California Press. Selinger, Jeffery S. Political 2016. Dissent: Embracing Hofstadter, Richard. 1969. The Idea of a Party System: The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United Urbinati, pp. 39-52. Habermas, Jürgen. 1979. “What is Universal Pragmatics?” of Evolution the and In Communication Rawls, John. 2005. Liberalism Political 80 States Violence and Party Development in the United States. University Press. Pennsylvania Philadelphia: of Society. 77 78 79 a centripetal force. Strategic competition for majority support produces majority for competition Strategic force. centripetal a rational incentives for political actors, words, in Rawls’ “to move out ofthe narrower circle of their own views and develop to political conceptions in terms which they can explain and justify their preferred policies a wider to public so as put to together a majority.” competitors for public support are encouraged speak to in terms likely be to acceptable and understandable least at to a majority of people rather than constitutive is competition as far So communities. particular of jargon the in of knowledge in shaping how meanings circulate and relate one to another in social context, this in turn helps shape a shared, and ideally public, basis for first looks what mediating of a means offers thus Democracy understanding. diversity knowledge the harnessing of by pluralism irresolvable epistemic like limited, but ongoing, through understanding and interests shared toward competition. is in the It emergence of this idea multiple – that ethical-political worldviews backed organized by and interested, though shifting, political alliances could peacefully coexist ongoing in competition historically that – party-based modern emergence of the democracy. marked learning in a democracy is help to dissolve the force of faction. By attending what theirto audiences already political know, leaders, if they are oriented truth-seeking honesty and toward about the social world. This dynamic constitutes the democratic of elite competition because it forces elites account to reflexively for their own interests and unify to them with the interests of those whom they seek represent to as well as requiring them learn to from the experiential represent. they whom those of knowledge tendency gives incentive toward generating shared grounds of discourse. discourse. of grounds shared generating toward incentive gives tendency Elites areencouraged communicate to in speech made within a framework of shared understandings “agreement aims that at terminates that in the intersubjective mutuality reciprocal of understanding.” What we have sketchedWhat so have we far are the basic principles are that supposed and knowledge decision-making sound on based democratic yield to sort commitment some of have who leaders, Political judgment. sound from knowledge genuine derive will knowledge-seeking honesty, to and then, citizens; of communities differentiated of perspectives social the as they compete with other political leaders, they will connect valid that social knowledge, as well as expert knowledge from their policy advisors, diagnosesto of social circumstances transcend that minoritarian or different perspectives of epistemic the integrate and viewpoints factionalized subsets of the community. This was an idea first articulatedJamesby he did notMadison. merely Yet sketch the abstract features of the processes

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Democratic Knowledge knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 23 necessary to achieve sound democratic knowledge. He also delineated delineated also He knowledge. democratic sound necessary achieve to concrete mechanisms might that support and sustain such processes. As that mechanisms the that is face currently we that problem the see, shall we Madison identified as having the potentialto support processes such we as laid out nohave longer above may operate. While can we still see the shape sorting and knowledge-gathering democratic processes of healthy that processes support those can that infrastructure institutional the take, should has begun erode. to view. turn now Madison’s to We

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Democratic Knowledge knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 24

84 Cambridge: Cambridge: Indeed, rather rather Indeed, 83 . New York: Vintage Books, p. 258. The “insensible and irresistible influence” of of influence” irresistible and “insensible The 81 . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Each piece is cited using Storing’s As Gordon Wood has argued, the Anti-Federalists viewed Anti-Federalists argued, the viewed has As Gordon Wood 82 . New York: Basic Books. Books. Basic York: New .

85 49 (1): 39-51. Bimber, Bruce. Power. Political of 2003. Evolution the in Technology Stark, Rodney and Roger Finke. 1988. “American Religion in 1776: A Statistical Portrait.” Sociological Wood, Gordon Revolution American the S. of 1991. Radicalism The Henry 5.16.8; Brutus 2.9.18 Centinel 2.7.140. Agrippa 4.6.17. All citations of Anti-Federalist writings are taken from Storing, Herbert J. 1981. The asymmetric geographic distribution of information, interests, and and interests, information, of distribution geographic asymmetric The and experiences men’s enfranchised Most Madison. on weighed worldviews knowledge were limited the to local context of what they immediately knew – their town, state, occupation, religious group, and so on. Their reasoned judgment would be just as parochial and diverse: long as “As the reason of man continues fallible, and he liberty is at exercise to it, different opinions will be formed.” This presented Madison with a paradox: This diversity of opinions was “insuperable obstacle a uniformity to of interests,” but it was the “first generated that thought freedoms of the protect to government” of object American society as literally “fragmented with interests.” with “fragmented American society literally as than an integrated melting pot of viewpoints, the fledgling countrywas still very much a geographical patchwork of religious and ethnic clusters, and access information to was heavily dependent physical on one’s location. personal experience and interest rendered the Anti-Federalists skeptical of of rendered Anti-Federalists the skeptical interest and experience personal central weakest and representation descriptive narrowly most the but all government. 84 Analysis reference numbers indicating volume, location in volume, and paragraph. 82 83 81 Anti-Federalist Complete The MADISON AND THE THE AND MADISON GEOGRAPHYPROBLEM The problem faced that Madison is a familiar in 1787 one in the age of the internet. How can a popular political system marked profound by epistemic despotism? resorting to without cohesion maintain divisions social and pluralistic a such that idea the that argued Anti-Federalists dissenters country could be “reduced the to same standard of morals, or habits, and of laws, is in itself an absurdity.” 3. The Anti-Federalists thus feared centralized that decision-making would “be geographic- profound that and country,” the of yeomanry from the hidden epistemic divisions would hamper the potential for collective action, as “The people in Georgia and New-Hampshire would not know one another’s mind.” Cambridge University Press. Starr, Paul. 2004. The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications 85

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Madison and the Geography Problem knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 25

91 Madison Madison 88 .” . New York: Oxford University . New York: Oxford University . New York: Oxford University Press, p. 90 Physical and mental parochialism lead to 87 Unchecked, factional political spheres would linger in a 89

86 Hamilton, Alexander. 2008. “Federalist Papers Federalist In 9.” The Madison, “Federalist 10,” p. 49. Ibid, p. 50. Madison, James. 2008. “Federalist Papers 10.” Federalist In The Hamilton, Alexander. 2008. “Federalist Papers 35.” Federalist In The Madison, “Federalist 10,” p. 51. What concerned Madison wasn’t the existence of disagreement outright. outright. disagreement of existence the wasn’t concerned Madison What Madison worried the that Rather, epistemic isolation of the vast majority of perspectives impossible. divergent their reconciling make would individuals Indeed, “one whose observation does not beyond travel the circle of his neighbors and acquaintances” would be unable distinguish to his or her private interests from “the common good of the society” or even those interests shared with others. conceptualized faction less as the existence of such groups, and more as a state of politics definedby the blind pursuit of individual endsat the expense of the common interest. famously Madison’s diagnosed faction as a propensity of this is strong “[so] suggested He phenomenon. psychological mankind fall to mutual into animosities,” factionalism that be the may natural state of politics. faction, groups of citizens “united and actuated some by common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed the rights to of other citizens, or to community the of interests aggregate and permanent the “state of perpetual vibration, between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy,” before collapsing one into or the other. 86 50. 87 Press, p. 167. 88 89 90 At theAt same time, Madison recognized while that the causes of faction were natural, its effectswere political and institutional. A faction denied a majority clog“may the administration, convulse it may the society; but it will be unable and execute to mask its violence under the forms of the Constitution.” thatdiversity. The threat of faction thus became a problem of aggregation. a small, In homogenous group, finding a single interest shared among a majoritywould be more Checks likely. against running roughshod over “the party weaker or an obnoxious individual” would be less. solutionMadison’s was deceptively simple. The single-minded interests of faction coexisted in a broad patchwork of other groups and interests. Even and identities different of number a have might member faction individual the interests reflected that the multiple social Baptist, (farmer, roles etc.) they occupied. While the isolated person “is timid and cautious” in their opinions, if one modality of their experience was dominant, then single that interest could “[acquire] firmness and confidence in proportion to the number with Press, p. 44. 91

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Madison and the Geography Problem knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 26 . New York: Oxford University Press, p. Thus, one could counter the effects of faction by 92 , 133). And, 133). balancing by these representatives against one another, Madison, James. 2008. “Federalist Papers 49.” Federalist In The Fed. 27 “[extending] the sphere” of political competition “take to in a greater variety of parties and interests; it less you make probable a majority that of the whole a commonwill have motive the invade to rights of other citizens.” While “common motive” faction to would remain within this expanded sphere, “it will be more difficult for all who feel to it discover their own strength,to and act in unison with each other.” “the greater geographically, distributed were interests such Because security affordedby a greatervariety of parties” could achievedbe through “a large over a smallrepublic.” More specifically, this meant a smaller legislature, in which each representative was elected a wider by variety of geography, through ensured diversity, Epistemic individuals. and groups acted as a bulwark against “the vicious arts” of factional rhetoric, and incentivized the election of “diffusive and established characters” who could groups. Their many across appeals moderating through majorities build “touch most would the interests common of “administration” judicious sensible chords and put in motion the most active springs of the human habituation through attitudes republican and legitimacy heart”generate and ( even when a “factious leaders kindle may a flame within their particular States,” spirit that would “be unable spread to a general conflagration” dueto the “variety of sects dispersed over the entire” country. majoritarianMadison’s solution epistemic to pluralism underlies a vast numberof ideas in political thought, from public reason economic to models on it rested But bias.” of “mobilization E.E. Schattsneider’s to democracy of a major assumption about epistemic competition’s reliance on a shared phenomenon spatial distinctly a was faction Madison, For geography. political – the product of the historical reality group that life was defined less by melting pot multiculturalism and more a patchwork by of isolated enclaves, as well as a social epistemology placed that a high premium on immediate a letters receive from to expect could surely While one experience. embodied relative in a distant city, epistemic circumstances were more or less spatially that character sociospatial knowledge’s of because precisely was It fixed. competition political of scope the together collapse to able was Madison with the problem of epistemic diversity. Epistemic diversity was directly correlated with the size of a territory – the more space incorporated a into within represented perspectives of number the greater the delineation, given it. Thus institutional Madison’s step: divide up national territory between fewer representatives maximize to the number of perspectives represented and minimize the potential for one any faction dominate. to By ensuring cornerstone the was geography formation, social given a within pluralism of dependent spatially of system a ensured itself proposal and Madison’s of networks. information and communication Madison erredYet, in treatingcertain a technological state of affairs as the 258. 92 which it is associated.”

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Madison and the Geography Problem knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 27 Geography Geography 93 , increasing, 94 Persons are joined together, not because they have voluntarily chosen to be united in these these in united be to chosen voluntarily have they because not together, joined are Persons lines, red and Green together. men bring which running are currents vast because but forms, of jurisdiction the and legislation affect and map the on are boundaries, political out marking the of consequences The them. disregard telegraph-wires and mails, courts, railways, but doboundary than units local legal the within living those more profoundly influence latter lines. Ibid, p. 107. Dewey, p. 27. 93 94 This newfound enthusiasm for a non-spatial information economy buoyed buoyed economy information non-spatial a for enthusiasm newfound This the first of enthusiasmwave for theInternet’s democratic potential.It connectivity would increase the “extensive and enduring consequences” consequences” enduring and “extensive connectivity the increase would individual actions on had “others beyond those directly engaged in them.” More access information to would the make social implications of individual action bringing clearer, about a newfound collective interest in controlling the mutual unseen influence individuals had on one another. baseline of human social life. With the technological upheavals of the 19th and 20th century, a very new picture of the relationship between knowledge and spacebegan emerge, to locating the formation of perspective in the interplay social Increasing abstraction. indirect and experience immediate between technology capitalism, communication industrial complexity by on brought factional the brought American state modern the in upheavals political and Madison mini-publics more into frequent contact Repeated with one another. networks, developed social broadened generated turn in interactions weak social ties, and, most importantly, cultivated shared experiences called Simmel Georg theorist social what expanded This knowledge. and the “capacity for abstraction,” is, that the ability conceptualize to abstract ever- Through this experience. immediate one’s beyond bonds group interests, less groups, identities, and discourse, new national expanding otherwise fractured an of out coalesced geography, immediate to beholden Madisonian patchwork. For Simmel, as with the sociologists followed that dispersed networks – Anderson, Habermas and Gellner, famously – him of communication rise larger gave to groups were that sustained more sharedby intersubjectivity and less face-to-face by contact. Knowledge and interests were decoupled from the spaces sustained that Madison’s institutional balance. perspective and geography of disentangling this century, a almost For inspired optimism. great While Lasswell Lippmann and penned their anxieties of a political age dominated propaganda, by John Dewey saw new democratic potential in the rise of despatialized mass media. Greater capacity for indirect communication brought on the by radio and mass epistemic obviate could internet) the and television later (and printing geography entirely, bringing about a “Great Community” coterminous with the state. Problems As its he outlined and Public in The would play a smaller and smaller role in how individuals perceived their perceived their individuals how role in smaller and smaller a play would writes: perceptions. group Dewey and identities group

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Madison and the Geography Problem knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 28

95 Madison’s solution solution Madison’s 96 Madison, “Federalist 10,” p. 49. Benkler, Yochai. 2006. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and , remains a central idea in democratic theory. The vast geography of These visions egalitarian, of cosmopolitan social spheres remain inspiring for the scope of their reimagining the participatory and deliberative vistas of different between negotiation ongoing an as Democracy democracy. modern worldviews appears be to most fully realized through them. vision Madison’s of a popular politics definedby thetenuous balance among parochial and irresolvable interests loggerheads at resolved with one another, only more by or less being ignored the at highest level disinterested by elites, fades into the background. its In place arrives the possibility a public sphere in which learning and discourse are motivated not personal by experience or tribal learning, reasons, institutional of giving the argument, rational by bonds, but and represented, between representative relations reflexive the and unmediated elite by gatekeepers or institutions anchor that social learning. unnerved have would discourse democratic of despatialization this But liberated that developments communicative and technological the Madison: harnessing the for provided better and from geography practice democratic interests, broad of representation greater dispersed intelligence, socially of the removed also interdependence mass of realization deeper and primary check against epistemic fracturing and mass manipulation of that knowledge. Federalist in presented famously faction, of problem the to solution Madison’s 10 divides so epistemic generate would America, Madison, young thought interests common of pursuit and identification the make would that deep all but impossible. Individuals, unable access to shared information and communicate would with be one “more another, disposed and oppress vex to each other than co-operate to for their common good.” was to expand the scope of political competition so that each representative representative each that so competition political of scope the expand to was was accountable larger to number of persons, preventing one any group’s interest from incentivizing and dominating winning epistemically diverse encourage could viewpoints between competition Political majorities. consensus. not understandings, if shared toward convergence reliance Madison’s that The fact on is, geography however, as part of the solution faction to no longer provides us with a sufficient foundation for a longer no is Geography confront. now we problems the addressing 95 Freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 3. 96 was precisely the internet’s decentralized and non-spatial character that that character non-spatial and decentralized internet’s the precisely was Writing technology. communication in from innovations it past distinguished in 2006, Harvard Professor Law Benkler Yochai wrote “Decentralized that and important cooperative and new action—specifically, individual nonmarket distributed, radically through out carried action coordinated in rooted necessarily strategies communicative to opposed as mechanisms larger consistently a property playing are and relations, market traditional role in public communication, and development that ought be to lauded.”

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Madison and the Geography Problem knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 29 hindrance coordination. to That is, premise key a undergirding the original the has generation holds. Our longer no institutions political our of design responsibility of finding a new solution. The task to is consider once again what institutional architecture can anchor processes of social learning capable of dissolving, least or at mitigating, the force of faction.

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Madison and the Geography Problem knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 30 . New 97 We might re-instituteWe something looks that the like draft. This might be a structure of nationalservice would that connect citizens communities to of meaning other than the narrow communities which to they are pre- Bishop, Bill.2009. The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart 1. York: Mariner Books. Mariner York: 97 Consequently, are we in need of new institutional designs will that restore the functions of division and collection and reboot processes of social learning convertthat a multiplicity of social perspectives moderate, into centrist understanding. social shared of forms Here are a few ideas emphasize that either the process of division, the both. or collection, process of NEW SOLUTIONS FOR AN OLD PROBLEM strategyMadison’s for resolvingthe problem offaction boils down two to concepts: division and collection. Division pertains as follows: Madison communities disperse would geography of facts physical the that expected of opinion, and produce obstacles coordination to for those who happened shareto extreme views. Collection, on the other hand, was the work of embrace each would representatives of number small A representation. within their constituency a multiplicity of communities of opinion; this would moderating and mediating, filtering, a serve to representatives the force role. Guided some by sort of meaningful commitment the to truth, the knowledge social valid of nuggets different the extract would representatives with nuggets those combine purview, their within communities from the the expert analyses which to they access, had and generate diagnoses of the country’s situation, their own constituencies interests and needs, and knowledge. valid on rested that solutions, potential collection. or division either of functions the delivers longer no Geography coordination of costs the reduced have technology Communications by provided once fragmentation or division of function the erased and sorted so now have Americans Moreover, valleys. rivers, and mountains, electoral with align that communities partyresidential by in themselves districting control to sought aggressively so parties have districts, and which processes the by that constituencies their homogenize processes to representatives serve collect, to mediate, and filter a diversity of opinions and weakened. have experiences 4.

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Madison and the Geography Problem knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 31

th In the In middle of the 98 century, students who attended Ivy League institutions, flagship flagship institutions, IvyLeague attended who students century, th Hoxby, Caroline.Hoxby, 2009. “The Changing Selectivity American of Colleges,” Journal of state universities, and private liberal arts colleges, typically returned to doing, so In there. settling marrying and college, after hometowns their they together wove the cultural milieu of the college they attended had and of their that home town. This process simultaneously provided experience with collection. division and of elements The leavening elsewhere weakened the force of geographically specific bodies of opinion; simultaneously, the return of these elite collegiate alumni their to those with perspectives new their of integration an required hometowns of their neighbors, in a process of collection. Over the course of the 20 century, the likelihood that such graduates would return home declined declined home return would graduates such that likelihood the century, precipitously. instead they Now, migrate the to coasts, or other urban centers. Their education no longer supports the processes of division and collection as it once did. might therefore We seek restore to urban- bridge-building, of kinds a with related other and building, bridge rural domestic Fulbright program. This might be a system of financial aid in which, exchange for their college tuition support, students are required returnto home after college least for at two years. in journalismTransformations undermined have the processes of collection so critical model. Madison’s to City and state papers that covered state capitols, for instance, helped tie the knowledge existed that in specifictowns and municipalitiesto a broader state level conversation about competing interests and the public good. As news organizations folded,have coverage provides that this sort of connective tissue has committed. Such structures would expose citizens to a broader diversity diversity a broader to expose citizens would committed. structures Such and collaborate, operate, to them requiring also while perspectives of decisionsmake in contexts require that processes of social learning to achieve an amalgam of views and perspectives. Such institutions weaken the practical force of our parochial ties—this is an analog the to principle of geographical division. They also build an alternative structure to political representation for achieving collection a and entanglement of plural views within unified a decision-making structure. might establishWe geographic lotteries foradmission to elite colleges. Elite colleges serve up leadership cohorts for our society, including the experts who learn how operate to the institutions of our representative serve to continue to are institutions representative our If government. processes of“collection,” – gathering and sorting multiplicity a of views in order achieve to shared diagnoses and broadly convincing solutions – them require also that contexts in training need leaders prospective then practices Admissions collection. processes such of in participation to training sort of this increase might diversity geographic accentuate that boundaries. opinion across working in Scholars tracked a major have shift over the last few decades in the life colleges. elite attend who students of trajectories 20

4. 2. 3. Economic Perspectives 23: 4, Pages 95–118. 98

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Madison and the Geography Problem knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 32 We might seriously take We the Fair 99 . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. University Press. Cambridge Cambridge: . dried up. We might seek substitutes through philanthropic support for support for philanthropic through substitutes seek might We up. dried partnerships between state-level think tanks and national journalistic organizations support to coverage of state capitols. Left-leaning and right-leaning think tanks continue active have interest to in the doings of state legislators.Journalistic interns might serve in rotation in think tanks on both sidesof the political spectrum, while being mentored by staffat national news organizations. They might deliver storiesto both the national news organization and local papers, and thereby help to jumpstart a process of collection which by a multiplicity of views enters a unifiedinto stream of conversation. should we Finally, look new structures at of representation better that fit our new despatialized conditions. Representation Actrecently drafted in Congress. This act would change the election rules for Congressional elections employ to most (in but not all instances) multi-member districts coupled with rank order voting. These two procedural mechanisms would result, in instances, many in districts are that represented both by a Republican and a Democrat. In serving themselves find would Democrat and Republican words, a other the same constituency. order In do to their jobs, they work to would have together do to the work of collecting, sorting, and filtering opinions just as Madison originally expected a single that representative would need to do. With voting mechanisms would that increase the likelihood of a need processes the restore cross-party sort would of this we for collaboration, Madisonthat originally thought were necessary for achieving valid knowledge. democratic Or we might, as Andrew Rehfeld suggests, replace geographic districting with a system of randomly 5. 99 wider, much a by accountable held are representatives that so constituencies non-territorial assigned more diverse group of voters.Rehfeld, Andrew. Representation, Political 2005. Constituency: of Concept The Design Institutional and Legitimacy, Democratic Would misinformation disappear if could we re-activate the processes of problem the mitigate least, at or resolve, to serve that collection and division of faction? Certainly not. But if were we adopt to reforms of this kind, then particular effortsto rely on misinformationachieveto politicaladvantage will face solvent a The will that permeability their weaken power. of the boundary social processes of healthy by generated opinion of communities between solvent. this provide would learning Butwe mustagain finally, thesay most fundamental thing. While reforms of this kind can restart processes of social learning, and give our anchor institutions (colleges, universities, schools, and the media) a chance revive to their important roles in our society, none of these reforms traction will have unless rebuild we an ethical commitment honesty. to

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Madison and the Geography Problem knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn 33 / 33 Suite 3300 Suite Miami, 33131–2349 FL 200 S. Biscayne Blvd. Telephone: (305) 908–2600 (305) Telephone: JOHN S. AND JAMES L. FOUNDATION KNIGHT

DEMOCRATIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PROBLEM OF FACTION Colophon knightfoundation.org | @knightfdn