Democratic epistemology and accountability

Social Philosophy and Policy

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 110-126

  Hardin, Russell ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0041036690     PISSN: 02650525     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0265052500002557     Document Type: Article

References (29)

1. John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1948), 163.
2. Trudy Govier, Social Trust and Human Communities (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1997), 51-76.
3. Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty, ed. G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1969), section 170.
4. Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper and Row, 1957).
5. This was the problem at issue in a recent pair of Boston Globe reporters' failings. One reporter, the black woman Patricia Smith, made up people and quotes. Another, the white male Mike Barnicle, put forward the jokes of comedian George Carlin as his own thoughts (in his smugly titled column "I was just thinking . . ."). Journalist Howell Raines, whose newspaper (the New York Times) owns the Globe, supposes the Globe was racist and sexist in firing Smith but not Barnicle; but he also supposes that journalism and the credibility of the press in general were harmed by keeping Barnicle on the job ("The High Price of Reprieving Mike Barnicle," New York Times, August 13, 1998, editorial page A22). In the end, Barnicle was forced to resign after it was discovered that he had earlier written a story that could not be verified and that did not fit the facts of the time (Felicity Barringer, "Boston Globe Columnist Resigns Over Authenticity of 1995 Story," New York Times, August 20, 1998, A1, A16).
6. This was the problem at issue in a recent pair of Boston Globe reporters' failings. One reporter, the black woman Patricia Smith, made up people and quotes. Another, the white male Mike Barnicle, put forward the jokes of comedian George Carlin as his own thoughts (in his smugly titled column "I was just thinking . . ."). Journalist Howell Raines, whose newspaper (the New York Times) owns the Globe, supposes the Globe was racist and sexist in firing Smith but not Barnicle; but he also supposes that journalism and the credibility of the press in general were harmed by keeping Barnicle on the job ("The High Price of Reprieving Mike Barnicle," New York Times, August 13, 1998, editorial page A22). In the end, Barnicle was forced to resign after it was discovered that he had earlier written a story that could not be verified and that did not fit the facts of the time (Felicity Barringer, "Boston Globe Columnist Resigns Over Authenticity of 1995 Story," New York Times, August 20, 1998, A1, A16).
7. See James D. Fearon, "Electoral Accountability and the Control of Politicians: Selecting Good Types versus Sanctioning Poor Performance," in Democracy, Accountability, and Representation, ed. Bernard Manin, Adam Przeworski, and Susan Stokes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
8. Rostenkowski, a powerful Democratic member of Congress from Illinois who was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was accused of misuse of public funds and defeated for reelection from a normally safe Democratic district in 1994. Hence, he was actually held accountable by the electorate for his abuse of office rather than for his policy positions. He was later convicted and served a brief time in jail. Clinton was held accountable by Republicans in the House of Representatives much more than by the electorate for his sexual indiscretions and his deceitful misstatements about them in court depositions.
9. Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy; Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 3d ed. (New York: Harper, 1950).
10. Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy; Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 3d ed. (New York: Harper, 1950).
11. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 262.
12. Vilfredo Pareto, Manual of Political Economy (New York: Kelley, 1971), ch. 4, section 26, p. 188.
13. Steven Kull, I. M. Destler, and Clay Ramsay, The Foreign Policy Gap: How Policymakers Misread the Public (College Park, MD: Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, 1997).
14. See Russell Hardin, Liberalism, Constitutionalism, and Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), chs. 3 and 6.
15. It is not impossible for someone to establish credible commitments to well-defined positions. For example, sometimes it is possible to appoint judges with fairly sure expectations of how they will behave in office, because they might have extensive records of performance on lower courts when there is little reason to think that this performance was opportunistically guided. Nevertheless, there are famous betrayals by judges who have gone on to change their positions after appointment to a higher court, as President Dwight David Eisenhower reputedly thought Chief Justice Earl Warren betrayed his expectations.
16. For an account of this episode, see Margaret Levi, Consent, Dissent, and Patriotism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 153-60, esp. 154.
17. Jean Antoine Condorcet, "Essay on the Application of Mathematics to the Theory of Decision-Making" [1795], in Selected Writings (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1999).
18. Burke's views appear throughout his works. See, e.g., "Speech to the Electors of Bristol [1774], in Representation, ed. Hanna Pitkin (New York: Atherton 1969), es p. 174-75 and "Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs" [1791], in The Works of Edmund Burke (London: George Bell and Sons, 1901), 3:85-87. For later views, see Michael Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (New York: Harper Collins, 1962), esp. the essay, "On Being a Conservative."
19. Burke's views appear throughout his works. See, e.g., "Speech to the Electors of Bristol [1774], in Representation, ed. Hanna Pitkin (New York: Atherton 1969), es p. 174-75 and "Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs" [1791], in The Works of Edmund Burke (London: George Bell and Sons, 1901), 3:85-87. For later views, see Michael Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (New York: Harper Collins, 1962), esp. the essay, "On Being a Conservative."
20. Burke's views appear throughout his works. See, e.g., "Speech to the Electors of Bristol [1774], in Representation, ed. Hanna Pitkin (New York: Atherton 1969), es p. 174-75 and "Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs" [1791], in The Works of Edmund Burke (London: George Bell and Sons, 1901), 3:85-87. For later views, see Michael Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (New York: Harper Collins, 1962), esp. the essay, "On Being a Conservative."
21. Russell Hardin, "Do We Want Trust in Government?" in Democracy and Trust, ed. Mark Warren (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 22-41; Hardin, "Trust in Government," in Trust and Governance, ed. Valerie Braithwaite and Margaret Lev. (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1998), 9-27.
22. Russell Hardin, "Do We Want Trust in Government?" in Democracy and Trust, ed. Mark Warren (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 22-41; Hardin, "Trust in Government," in Trust and Governance, ed. Valerie Braithwaite and Margaret Lev. (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1998), 9-27.
23. Rebecca L. Brown, "Accountability, Liberty, and the Constitution," Columbia Law Review 98 (April 1998): 531-79.
24. See Russell Hardin, "Institutional Commitment: Values or Incentives?" in Economics, Values, and Organization, ed. Avner Ben-Ner and Louis Putterman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 419-33.
25. The median levels were 15 and 5 percent, respectively (Kull, Destler, and Ramsay, The Foreign Policy Gap). The initial poll was done in January 1995. (See Steven Greenhouse, "Foreign Aid: Under Siege in the Budget Wars," New York Times, April 30 1995, section 4 p. 4.) Other polls have yielded even more extreme results. Foreign aid does no include military assistance; including such assistance would still put the popular estimate far out of line with the facts. When this clarification was added to a follow-up poll in 1996, however, popular estimates of how much aid went for purely economic assistance and development were higher than in the poll cited here.
26. The median levels were 15 and 5 percent, respectively (Kull, Destler, and Ramsay, The Foreign Policy Gap). The initial poll was done in January 1995. (See Steven Greenhouse, "Foreign Aid: Under Siege in the Budget Wars," New York Times, April 30 1995, section 4 p. 4.) Other polls have yielded even more extreme results. Foreign aid does no include military assistance; including such assistance would still put the popular estimate far out of line with the facts. When this clarification was added to a follow-up poll in 1996, however, popular estimates of how much aid went for purely economic assistance and development were higher than in the poll cited here.
27. David Firestone, "Being a Politician Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry," New York Times, August 23, 1998, section 4, p. 2.
28. Michael Kinsley, "The Intellectual Free Lunch," New Yorker, February 6, 1995, 4-5.
29. Walter Lippmann, The Public Philosophy (Boston: Little, Brown, 1955), 29.