Democracies Cannot Survive Without Quality Education. A Conversation with Author Brook Manville (Ep. 40)

Mar 20

American democracy cannot survive without well-functioning schools that enable students to become good citizens and that teach them to appreciate what it means to live under a system whose only boss are the people themselves. That’s the claim my guest Brook Manville makes in his new book, The Civic Bargain – How Democracies Survive.

In this wide-ranging conversation about civic education, Manville says schools must cultivate “civic friendship,” one of seven conditions that have been present in all democratic societies going back to ancient Greece. “[Civic friendship] does not mean that you agree with everybody or that you necessarily personally like everybody,” Manville says. “It means that you know how to get along with them, you have enough respect for them, and they have enough respect for you…The way in which students listen, learn, and speak to one another takes place in a well-moderated classroom. That’s something you want children coming out of school that is deep in their souls by the time they graduate.” Manville also sees the need for more civic friendship among the adult stakeholders. “It's so discouraging,” he says, “when school board meetings turn into ‘riot fests.’ It's exactly what shouldn't be happening in a school. Not to say that there aren't emotionally good and valid points that are being exchanged, but part of civic education has to be the mindset and the process of working with tomorrow's fellow citizens, which young students will be.”

During this episode, I play an audio clip from Marvin Berkowitz, an expert on character education and a guest on a previous episode. Berkowitz says, “In democracies, we've lost the sense of what the common good is. Democracies have sort of devolved into a mathematical enterprise where everybody votes for self-interest, out of fear, out of hatred, bigotry, or out of ignorance. That never was supposed to be what democracy is democracy.” Berkowitz goes on to say, “There's no moral future without moral children, and there's no democratic future without democratic children…Character education is a critical piece of all that.”

Tune in to hear Manville’s response to Berkowitz and his call for character education. And find out what Manville thinks schools can do to promote civic education, another of the seven conditions he says all democracies depend on.

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Featured Guest:

Brook Manville is an independent consultant who writes about politics, democracy, and business. Previously a partner with McKinsey & Co., he has also held senior positions in media, technology, non-profit management and executive development. In his earliest career he was an award-winning teacher and professor of ancient history at Northwestern University. Brook is the author of several books and articles including The Origins of Athenian Citizenship (Princeton U. Press, 1990), and A Company of Citizens: What the World’s First Democracy Teaches Leaders About Creating Great Organizations (Harvard Business Press, co-authored with Josiah Ober). His latest book, The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives (Princeton U. Press 2023, co-author Josiah Ober) was named a“Best Book of 2023”by The New Yorker magazine. Brook currently publishes periodic essays on Substack, which further develop andextend ideas from his book of the same name: The Civic Bargain.

Is democracy in trouble, perhaps even dying? Pundits say so, and polls show that most Americans believe that their country’s system of governance is being “tested” or is “under attack.” But is the future of democracy necessarily so dire? In The Civic Bargain, Brook Manville and Josiah Ober push back against the prevailing pessimism about the fate of democracy around the world. Instead of an epitaph for democracy, they offer a guide for democratic renewal, calling on citizens to recommit to a “civic bargain” with one another to guarantee civic rights of freedom, equality, and dignity.

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