Chapter 1, excerpted from uniting mississippi Democracy and Leadership in the South Eric Thom a s Weber Foreword by Governor William F. Winter University Press of Mississippi Jackson www.upress.state.ms.us he University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Copyright © 2015 by University Press of Mississippi All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First printing 2015 ∞ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Weber, Eric homas. Uniting Mississippi : democracy and leadership in the South / Eric homas Weber ; foreword by Governor William Winter. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4968-0331-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4968-03498 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4968-0332-0 (ebook) 1. Poor—Mississippi. 2. Education—Mississippi. 3. Political leadership—Mississippi. 4. Democracy—Mississippi. I. Title. HC107.M73P64 2015 320.609762—dc23 2015005237 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available We’ll have to ind a greater title for [larger cities] because each of them is a great many cities, not a city. . . . At any rate, each of them consists of two cities at war with one another, that of the poor and that of the rich, and each of these contains a great many.—Plato, Republic, Book IV Is there any greater evil we can mention for a city than that which tears it apart and makes it many instead of one? Or any greater good than that which binds it together and makes it one?—Plato, Republic, Book V To understand the world, you have to understand a place like Mississippi.—William Faulkner, attributed1 he past is never dead. It’s not even past. —William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun introduction In the richest country in the world, some states are still home to deep poverty. he Children’s Defense Fund notes that Mississippi has the worst child poverty rate in the coun1 try, at 31.8 percent. he Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count index ranked Mississippi in last place among the states with regard to child well-being, based on metrics including health, teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, 2 poverty, and death rates. To be sure, landing in last place on an elite list may not always be an indictment. People who arrive in last place at the Olympics are still remarkable runners. However, a few of the Kids Count index results demonstrate the problems for Mississippi’s position in various rankings. In 2011, Mississippi had a 10.7 percent unemployment rate, with many areas of the state falling between a 15.2 and a 19 percent rate. Nearly 43.8 percent of children in the state live in single-parent families. he overall high school graduation rate is 73.7 3 percent, but this metric is deceptive and depends on who is counted in the measure. For example, in a 2007 report, one county saw only 32 percent of high school freshmen make it 4 to their senior year. Finally, while the state’s overall infant mortality rate is 9.8 per thousand each year, in poor counties like Tunica and Montgomery, the rates are 22.9 and 29.2 per thousand, respectively. Compare these numbers with another rural state, Iowa, in which the unemployment rate is 5.9 percent and the infant mortality rate is 4.7 each year 5 per thousand, rising no higher than 13.3 in a single county. 3 In short, in the pockets of deep poverty, Mississippians’ lives are profoundly more diicult than in the wealthier areas and exhibit traits one would not expect to see in the wealthiest country in the world. In education, the state fares similarly. According to Mississippi reporter Sid Salter in the Desoto Times Tribune, “As of 2011 accountability results, 67 of Mississippi’s 152 school districts, or just over 44 percent, were rated either academic 6 watch, low performing, at risk of failing, or failing.” Even nations of great wealth and democratic governance face profound challenges, particularly when it comes to simply providing an adequate educational foundation for all citizens. Concern about these issues is not guided by a desire for complete equality of conditions, but for equal access to a quality education. Scholars such as John Rawls have argued that diferences in wealth are consistent with a just society, so long as the advantage of the few does not come at the diminishment of the quality of life or of life opportunities for 7 the least advantaged citizens. Equality is an important democratic ideal, but it is often oversimpliied. John Dewey, one of America’s most inluential democratic philosophers, argued that we are all equal because we are individuals, because we are all diferent. Equality does not mean our lives or conditions should be the same. Instead, we should think of equality in relation to our opportunities to develop and lourish as individuals. In this way, Dewey’s philosophy was sympathetic with the spirit of Rawls’s point about diferences in wealth. Dewey believed that the great wealth of the United States meant that no children should have to grow up in environments blighted by 8 poverty, that such conditions are most unnecessary here. As a college professor in Mississippi, I have found the introduction 4 problems in education here to be palpable and intertwined 9 with poverty. My experience has surprised me, given that the United States has generated some of the most important and innovative philosophical ideas about education, particularly in Dewey’s philosophy. hese facts together led me to research the conluence of Mississippi’s problems in poverty, education, and democracy. hese are problem areas for the state, but more importantly they are opportunities for leadership. States that are wealthy, healthy, and united need management to keep their ships sailing on the course already set. No state is without its problems, but Mississippi ofers the far greater opportunity. Leadership here can yield great progress. I hope that this book inspires optimism for progress, not just another grim account of the state’s deicits. At the same time, optimism for the future will be supericial and inefectual without an honest and careful look at the problems we face. While studying poverty, education, and democracy in Mississippi, I simultaneously worked on developing a theory of democratic leadership. As a pragmatic philosopher, I believe that my theories would be meaningless if they could not be applied to the real world. When I inished work on my theory of democratic leadership, therefore, I felt that the logical next step would be to apply my theory to my home state of Mississippi. his book resulted from wondering what lessons, if any, could be drawn from the values of democratic leadership for the sake of pursuing a prosperous and bright future for Mississippi. And since I wanted to test my theory of democratic leadership, it made sense to begin where democracy faces some of its great diiculties. As the opening epigraph from William Faulkner declares, “To understand the world, you have to understand a place like Mis- introduction 5 10 sissippi.” If we adapt Faulkner’s maxim, we might suggest that to understand democratic leadership, we must consider what it can contribute in a place as complex as Mississippi. In developing my theory of democratic leadership, I returned to one of the most inluential moral and political philosophers who ever lived, Plato. Plato’s Republic contains invaluable lessons for living and leading well, even if he was also wrongheaded about many things. It was my aim to learn from what Plato was right about, namely his division of the cardinal virtues of leadership—wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice—while updating those elements of Plato’s insights that conlict with democracy. To the latter end, I turned to the great democratic philosopher, John Dewey, as well as more recent philosophers inspired by his work. hrough a study of Plato and Dewey, I proposed a general deinition of good leadership that calls it the application of wisdom and justice with courage and moderation to the guidance of human conduct. Long deinitions are cumbersome, so I abbreviated it: Good leadership is: judicious yet courageous guidance. With Dewey’s help, I reconstructed Plato’s understanding of these virtues to adapt them for the democratic era. My explanation of this further step will wait until chapter 3. My aim is to apply this new theory of leadership, one which is especially infused with democratic values, to the challenges and potential for Mississippi’s progress. I argue that each of the lessons on the virtues drawn from Plato’s Republic and adapted for the democratic context has beneicial implications for the judicious yet courageous guidance of Mississippi’s future. I will begin in chapter 1 as I did when I irst arrived in Mississippi, looking to theories of economic growth in the hopes that they might alleviate the state’s poverty-related problems. I argue in that chapter that focusing on the economy introduction 6 puts the cart before the horse in terms of addressing Mississippi’s challenges. While economist Benjamin Friedman contends in he Moral Consequences of Economic Growth (2005) that we should think about moral development as a 11 consequence of economic growth, I have come to think the reverse is necessary for Mississippi—that economic growth should be considered the product of moral growth. Friedman’s arguments encounter diiculty in communities with 12 complex histories, such as in Mississippi or in South Africa. In states like Mississippi, changes in moral conditions must be pursued in order for the economy to grow and lourish. he cause for optimism here is that Mississippi’s stock has been undervalued. Investments of leadership that succeed in moving people out of poverty would reap far greater rewards than opportunities for change in other states. After presenting my challenges to Friedman’s understanding of moral growth in chapter 1, I ofer a picture of educational conditions in the state in chapter 2. Education is commonly considered one of the avenues for development but is in the irst place a matter of moral growth that opens opportunities for economic growth. hrough education we develop as persons. Former Mississippi governor William Winter has often said that “the only road out of poverty runs 13 by the schoolhouse door.” Nevertheless, there is an apparent catch-22 in Mississippi, in which the substantial hurdles of poverty frustrate educational progress, in turn impeding the economic growth necessary for improving educational attainment. I argue in chapter 2 that these problems can be surmounted, but that they must irst be identiied correctly. In chapter 3, I return to my theory of democratic leadership to introduce the ways in which each of the key virtues of good democratic leadership can contribute to addressing entrenched social problems. I present in a nutshell and in introduction 7 plain English how I came to develop my theory of democratic leadership in prior work. Next, in chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7, I attend to the key virtues of democratic leadership, focusing in each case on practical areas of application in which progress can be pursued. Chapter 4 concerns the value of wisdom in leadership, in the democratic form of open and engaged public inquiry, drawing on the greatest evidence available. Chapter 5 covers the virtue of courage, understood especially in terms of the will to experiment, to try new ways and eforts. Chapter 6 focuses on unity, interpreted as aiming for and building on the common good despite diferences and historical division. Chapter 7 rounds of my discussion of the virtues with attention to justice, democratically regarded as respect for the dignity and worth of each person. Chapter 8 steps back from these key lessons to consider briely some particular directions for policy initiatives that will foster the democratic virtues. he measures I propose are not simple, shortterm, or easy. I appreciate that it will take time for the will to grow in order to make these steps a reality. If Mississippians want progress, however, we must sincerely engage in a public conversation about the state’s future. his book aims to ofer only a step in that process. In the Appendixes, I have included a number of the oped essays I have written in an efort to spark discussion and to advocate for causes that I champion in this book. hese pieces are ofered as examples of small steps that individuals can contribute. I believe that they add some credibility, furthermore, to the idea that the concepts developed in this book have found some small degree of purchase in public discourse. As Dewey once wrote to a friend and colleague, journalism is a fascinating demonstration of the cash val14 ue of ideas. Dewey was among America’s greatest public introduction 8 philosophers. Following his example led me to write for newspapers from time to time. he Appendixes accordingly consist of seven gathered articles from newspapers and periodicals. Newspapers and various outlets for public discourse are the spheres in which Mississippians can reconstruct the culture underlying the lingering symptoms of the state’s troubled history. hey are also the place for thinking optimistically and positively about what the state might become, building on strengths and potential for progress. hese tasks together represent an ideal context for applying and testing my theory of democratic leadership, which I hope has valuable contributions to ofer for Mississippi’s future. introduction 9 notes Epigraph 1. his statement is often attributed to William Faulkner, but to my knowledge is not found in his published works. Howry professor of Faulkner Studies Dr. Jay Watson of the University of Mississippi has told me that he is unaware of the origin of the quote, yet says that it is ubiquitous in writings about Faulkner. For one of many secondary sources where the quote is found without statement of its published source, see Eugene R. Dattel, “Cotton in a Global Economy: Mississippi (1800–1860),” Mississippi History Now, http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/ articles/161/cotton-in-a-global-economy-mississippi-1800-1860. Introduction 1. Patti Hassler, “Families Struggle: Child Poverty Remains High,” Children’s Defense Fund, September 20, 2012, http://www .childrensdefense.org/newsroom/cdf-in-the-news/press-releas es/2012/child-poverty-remains-high.html (accessed January 25, 2013). 2. he Annie E. Casey Foundation, “Kids Count Data Book: State Trends in Child Well-Being, 2012,” http://www.kidscount .org. 3. hese numbers come from the Kids Count online database, http://www.datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bystate/. 4. his particular detail comes from an Associated Press source, which has catalogued “Dropout Factories.” See Johns 130 Hopkins Researchers, “Dropout Factories: Take a Closer Look at Failing Schools across the Country,” Associated Press, 2007, http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/wdc/dropout/. If one counts as a graduation rate the proportion of seniors who graduate, the graduation rate will appear far higher than if one counts the number of eighth graders who complete their senior year of high school. 5. he remainder of these details, not counting the one reference in the previous note, are drawn once again from the Kids Count database. 6. Sid Salter, “Charter Schools Ofer Alternative to Mediocre/ Failing Schools,” Desoto Times Tribune, February 22, 2012, http:// www.desototimes.com/articles/2012/02/23/opinion/editorials/ doc4f453f741ac69454084633.txt (accessed January 23, 2013). 7. his was Rawls’s insight in his presentation of the “diference principle,” the idea that inequalities are acceptable only so long as they are reasonably believed to be of beneit for all. For instance, if all people have a morally acceptable set of living conditions, for some who are successful or fortunate in business to earn considerably more money than others can in many circumstances be of beneit to all, insofar as all gain from the products he or she sells. See John Rawls, A heory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 65. Plato was deeply concerned about great diferences of wealth and poverty, especially when those diferences foster disunity and disharmony in a society. Were Rawls to reply directly to Plato, I believe that he would suggest that it is possible for diferences of wealth to exist in such a manner that each person beneits, such as when a medical scientist gets wealthy creating a medicine that makes everyone healthier and happier. He would agree, however, that it is also possible for diferences of wealth to render people’s lives worse of, and that, he claimed, was the limiting factor between just and unjust social structures that produce great diferences of wealth and poverty. notes 131 hose social structures that permit the improvement of life conditions for the best of at the expense of the least advantaged citizens in society are unjust, on his view. 8. Here I have in mind John Dewey, “Attacks Wage Disparity,” in he Collected Works of John Dewey, he Later Works, vol. 5, 1929–1930, ed. Jo Ann Boydston (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1988), 431. First published in the New York Times, December 26, 1929, 28. 9. My understanding is conirmed in Oliver homas, “A Poverty, Not Education, Crisis in U.S.A.” USA Today, December 11, 2013, 8A. 10. As I mentioned in the note for the Epigraph, above, this quote is ubiquitous in the literature on Faulkner yet does not occur in his published works. Still, it is accepted as one of his sayings. 11. Benjamin Friedman, he Moral Consequences of Economic Growth (New York: Vintage Books, 2005). 12. Students of mine who have visited South Africa have drawn for me a number of comparisons between Mississippi and that country. heir histories both featured great inequalities and injustices on racial grounds. he persons of black African descent in both places are deeply impoverished. Finally, a profound need exists in both places for racial and moral reconciliation. While I mention South Africa here in this passage, my focus centers on Mississippi. Nevertheless, I believe it useful to note that Mississippi is not alone in raising some of the concerns that I am referring to here. 13. he Honorable William Winter. See Mississippi Center for Education Innovation, “About Us: Planting Seeds . . . Charting Courses,” Learning Labs, 2008, http://www.kellogglearninglabs. org/upload_main/docs/ms-aagd-web_09-03-19.pdf (accessed January 26, 2013). 14. Larry A. Hickman, gen. ed., he Correspondence of John notes 132 Dewey, 1859–1952, 2nd edition, ed. Barbara Levine, Anne Sharpe, and Harriet Furst Simon (Charlottesville, VA : InteLex Corp., 2001), 1891.06.03 (00460). I am referring to a letter that Dewey wrote to William James in 1891. I discuss this letter and related themes in an essay, Eric homas Weber, “James, Dewey, and Democracy,” William James Studies 4 (2009): 90–110, esp. 95–100. Chapter  1. As a brief start, see Mississippi Economic Council, “Executive Summary of Momentum Mississippi’s Economic Development Incentive Legislation Proposal,” http://www.msmec.com/ mx/hm.asp?id=execsumbp. See also Marianne T. Hill, Mississippi Economic Review and Outlook, 22, no. 1 (2008). Finally, see he Special Task Force for the Revitalization of the Delta Region, ed., Mississippi Delta Revitalization: Goals and Recommendations 2008 (Jackson, MS: Mississippi Delta Strategic Compact, 2008), http://www.mississippi.edu/drtf/downloads/delta_task_force_ recc_for_2008.pdf. 2. Tami Luhby, “Mississippi Has Highest Poverty and Lowest Income,” CNN Money, September 20, 2012, http://money.cnn .com/2012/09/20/news/economy/income-states-poverty/index .html. Last accessed 1/26/13. 3. See Richard Vedder and Bryan O’Keefe, “Wal-Mart against the Wall?,” Washington Times, August 27, 2006. Vedder and O’Keefe defend Walmart against a number of Democrats. 4. Robert Nozick, “Why Do Intellectuals Oppose Capitalism? (Excerpted).” Cato Policy Report 20, no. 1 (January–February 1998), http://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/why -do-intellectuals-oppose-capitalism. 5. Friedman, he Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, 4. 6. Ibid., ix. 7. See Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, “he Women’s notes 133