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Home > News & Events > CLA Today Archive > Annual Report : Reflections on democracy

Reflections on democracy

"I like the noise of democracy."
—James Buchanan (1791-1868), 15th U.S President

As this year's election went into overtime, the nation's voters tuned in and turned up the volume. The people have spoken. And their voices have stirred up a clamor that, to a champion of free expression, is a kind of music—dissonant, turbulent, but invigorating.

What we have seen this fall is a high-stakes exercise in democracy—democracy reexamining and expressing itself in a collective effort to translate the voice of the people into a clear electoral choice. Considering the magnitude of change in American culture over the past decade, the ferment should come as no surprise.

The changing political and cultural landscape

As we baby-boomer Minnesotans age, we see a world transformed. We see a souped-up consumer culture that appears to value self and instant gratification over civic responsibility. We see a growing and destabilizing incivility and impatience. We see a new generation steeped in digital technology, savvy in the new economy, and bored with politics-and-business-as-usual. And we see unprecedented demographic change creating a colorful, and noisy, melange of languages, nationalities, and ethnicities.

We also see an electoral system increasingly driven by up-to-the-minute polling and instant transmission of images and sound bites, shaped by television advertising and the Internet, buffeted by sometimes bitter partisan crosswinds. Candidates are packaged by image consultants for sale to an image-hungry public. As we now know all too well, the rush to declare winners can wreak electoral havoc—and raise the voice(s) of the people to a mighty tumult.

When we planned this issue, we thought the big story would be the vanishing electorate. Expecting another dip in turnout, we planned a story about whether and why young people have opted out of the electoral process. Nobody's talking about voter apathy now. But conversations throughout the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), in virtual chat rooms and faculty offices and classrooms, from Murphy and Folwell Halls to Heller and Rarig, are focused on how we elect our nation's leaders.

Democracy in the academy

The conversations center on issues at the very heart of our democratic system: the integrity of our nation's electoral process; the meaning of “one person, one vote"; the separation of powers and the balance of power between states and the federal government; the role of the judiciary in resolving electoral disputes; the benefits and perils of technology and human intervention; the conduct of media; the validity of exit poll-based projections; the power of “spin"; even the importance of visual communication—ballot design and visual cues—in voting.

In short, this history-making election cuts across all CLA disciplines, galvanizing the intellectual energies of faculty and students throughout the college—from political science to speech-communication, from American studies to psychology. Along with the rest of the country, CLA's faculty and students are receiving a real-time civics lesson, learning history as it happens and writing the historical narratives for future generations. And they are disagreeing, sometimes vehemently, both on the issues and on the details.

Like democracy, intellectual inquiry in the academy is built on broad tolerance of divergent points of view. It invites challenge and dissent. It's messy. It engenders open debate that is sometimes measured and restrained, sometimes noisy and contentious. And yet somehow it seems to find a measure of equilibrium, and harmony, in the collective cacophony of human voices.

Though sometimes unsettling, the hubbub is, more often than not, generative and transformative in the end. When all the dust settles, we find ourselves in a richer, better place—somewhere above the melee and beyond the boundaries of our previous thinking. Then there's that noise again, and the discovery process continues.

CLA dialogues transforming disciplines and communities

In my four years as dean, I have seen how people can rise above differences to find common ground for the common good. Through creative tension and dialogue, CLA scholars clear new paths of intellectual inquiry, travel through new realms of thought, and transform their disciplines.

Through debate and deliberation, we reach consensus—then we roll up our sleeves and work together for the future of the college and its students.

The end result is a constant infusion of intellectual and creative energy into the communities of Minnesota and beyond, where CLA's faculty are teaching and putting their brainpower to work on issues and subjects ranging from new media to new music, from urban sprawl to language learning in deaf children, from the distribution of wealth to the preservation of wetlands, from the nature and nurture of happiness to the role of technology in preserving rural communities.

Our challenge is to keep those connections vital, the ideas and creative juices flowing, our students assured of the best education possible, and Minnesota assured of a continuing supply of innovative, versatile, and productive leaders.

You, our alumni and friends, are important partners in our shared enterprise. You guide us with your wise counsel, you support us with your generous contributions of time and resources. We hope that you will stay with us as we continue the conversations and look forward to another spectacular year.

Now there's that noise again…

—Dean Steven J. Rosenstone