The "right" Answer

I recall my classes at Harvard.  Some of my students used to regard public policy-making as a matter of finding the "right" answer to a public problem.  Politics was a set of obstacles which had to be circumvented so the "right" answer could be implemented.  Policy was clean--it could be done on a computer.  Politics was dirty--unpredictable, passionate, sometimes mean-spirited or corrupt.  Policy was god; politics, a necessary evil.

I'd spend entire courses trying to disabuse them.  I'd ask them how they knew they had the "right" answer.  They'd dazzle me with techniques--cost-benefit analyses, probability and statistics, regression analysis.  Their mathematics was flawless.  But--I'd ask again--how did they know they had the right answer?

They never did.  At most, policy wonks can help the public deliberate the likely consequences of various choices.  But they can't presume to make the choices.  Democracy is disorderly and sometimes dismaying, but it is the only source of wisdom on this score.

Next to the policy wonk who presumes to know what is best for the public sits the pollster who presumes to be able to tell what the public wants.  The pollster's techniques are just as flawed, and his conceit is no less dangerous to democracy.  The public doesn't know what it wants until it has an opportunity to debate and consider.  Engaging in a democratic process is not like choosing a favorite flavor of ice cream.

Politicians must lead; they must try to educate and persuade.  They must enter into an ongoing dialogue with the public.  No one can discover the "best" policy through analytic prowess; nor is the "best" policy that which happens to be the most popular on a questionnaire.  Democracy requires deliberation and discussion.  It entails public inquiry and discovery.  Citizens need to be actively engaged.  Political leaders must offer visions of the future and arguments to support the visions, and then must listen carefully for the response.  A health-care plan devised by Plato's philosopher-king won't wash.

-Robert Reich, Locked in the Cabinet

The Lincoln