Annalice Ni

10/22/2018
Honors 230

In Chapter 10 of Developing Democratic Character in the Young, titled “Education for

Democracy: The Foundation for Democratic Character,” Roger Soder outlines the establishment
of a democracy, arguing that conditions must be met and upheld by the society and people of a
democracy for the governing system to thrive. Soder begins by establishing that even in an
undemocratic civil society, there exist certain rules and a definition of what is right in the
society. Soder proposes that the kind of civil society we want is a democratic civil society, but
not in the sense that majority rules and everyone must collaborate. He defines democracy as a
political regime featuring freedom and self-rule of the people within a system with
representatives chosen from parties that represent a spectrum of viewpoints.
The first step in establishing a democracy is questioning whether the people actually
desire it and the personal responsibilities that will come with it. Soder refers to Singapore as an
example of a country that rejected democratic institutions but is still thriving economically and
as a society. As it is more difficult to sustain a democratic government than to found one, Soder
provides a series of possible conditions that must exist for a functional democracy to survive.
Among these twelve conditions, Soder includes that an equal exchange must be established to
form relationships, there must be a constant tension between freedom and order in society,
and the necessity of sustaining a thoughtful public instead of an easily persuaded audience.
In order to prepare individuals for the responsibilities of creating and maintaining an
effective democracy, Soder reasons that public schools are the best place to educate children
the “moral and intellectual responsibilities” for living in a democratic system. According to
Soder, the curriculum of schools must teach the conditions needed for a healthy democracy
and teachers must be well-equipped to teach this important content with their own education.
Although the actions of society are important in the maintenance of a democratic
system, the individual also bears responsibility to create and uphold the conditions of
democracy. Soder lists the kinds of traits a democratic people should have, paralleling the traits
of a democratic society he established earlier. The willingness to be thoughtful and critical
towards the governing system is a feature democratic people should have, as well as an
acceptance for ambiguity as it is unavoidable in a truly thoughtful society that does not leap to
conclusions. Soder concludes by questioning if, according to the conditions established in the
essay, we should place more emphasis on issues in public school curriculum and competence if
they are instrumental in maintaining a free democratic society.

Regarding trust in a democratic society, I believe this trait may be one of the hardest to
maintain in Soder’s list of proposed conditions for a democracy. Others, like the knowledge of
personal rights and freedoms are mostly internal conditions that an individual must cultivate on
their own accord. Trust, however, involves people outside of the individual and is incredibly
easy to break, in contrast with how difficult it is to build. Soder brings up the question of how to
rebuild trust when it is broken in a democratic society. I think this is an issue that is imperative
for society to consider because of the nature of politicians in our democratic system.
 Like Soder says, “there is a tendency to do ‘big things’” instead of actually impacting
society positively within government, especially during election periods in which politicians say
anything to gain a position. If politicians break the trust of the people by making claims of what
they will do in office and tossing them aside once in power, how do the people rectify these
damages? Can they truly rebuild this trust, only to have it broken once more during every
election period? I think the cynicism entrenched in modern-day American politics, especially
related to voting and elections, is largely based on the broken trust between the people and
their elected officials. The feeling that whether or not you cast a vote does not matter because
the government will be the same loud and ineffective group, or because of distrust in what
politicians claim during their campaigns greatly deteriorates the quality of our democratic
society. As trust is the condition of democracy that Soder lists first, perhaps this topic needs to
gain more attention in discussions about the flaws in American democracy.
I found Soder’s claim that public schools should be the place to educate young members
of democratic society very surprising and almost funny, not because I do not agree, but because
I cannot remember these kinds of values being involved in my earlier education. Soder heavily
emphasizes that in democratic society, people must accept ambiguity in issues instead of
jumping to extremes as it is easy to do. However, in many public schools that value testing and
correctness above all else, this embracement of ambiguity is truly difficult to develop within
young people. If they grow up in a school system that requires “the right answer” to every
problem and penalizes those who think differently, how can we blame them for fearing the
unknown when they participate in politics? After all, people’s instinct to jump to one side of the
issue to the other without considering the middle options must stem from somewhere.
While I agree that public schools would be a good place to develop critical and
thoughtful attitudes towards the governing system, I can’t help but also consider the outrage of
those who criticize a more authoritarian government teaching their children to grow up in an
authoritarian society. What gives democracy an imaginary moral high ground above other kinds
of governing systems? I appreciate that Soder brings up Singapore as an example of rejecting
democracy as it shows that democracy is not the only answer to all issues in societies.