What Is Democracy?

¶ … Democracy? The word "democracy" today evokes many different feelings and concepts. For some, it is synonymous with equality, as in that all people should have access to the same products and services, have the same job opportunities, and be treated the same in the home and workplace, regardless of differences like race, gender, and religion. For others, the term is synonymous with the right to express one's opinions without fear of persecution.

For most, it means the right to have a government that has been voted into power by the majority of citizens. It is the fight for this right to vote that has created the many concepts of equality that are associated with democracy today. For Mortimer Adler, democracy has yet another meaning, which is equal access to learning in schools. Like many educators before and since, Adler believed that students should have equal access to an education system that cultivates equal opportunities once students leave school.

According to Adler, a truly democratic society offers similar opportunities for all people. He believed that American society, being democratic, offered this. For Adler, the problem came in, however, there was a discrepancy between the minds cultivated by what he referred to as a "two- or more track education system, where only an elite few were provided with the tools to access tertiary education. Tertairy education, in turn, was to provide students with the skills and tools to enter the workplace of their choosing after graduation.

The ultimate effect was that opportunities came only to those that were cultivated for those by an unequal school system. Adler held that the basis of the multi-track school system assumed a certain measure of intelligence according to appearance and culture. Those who were assumed to be of lesser intelligence were therefore not entered into the "elite" programs, which would ultimately lead to the ability of students to enter tertiary education.

According to this assumption, it was a waste of time, effort, and funding to provide excellence in education to those who were assumed unable to make the best of such an education. For Adler, the basis of democracy was to provide an education that would lead to a truly democratic society. In his opinion, although society did provide true equality in terms of opportunities, many of these opportunities were lacking for those coming from an inadequate educational background.

Adler therefore advocated for greater equality in education, which would then enhance the appearance of democracy to a higher level of actual democracy in the country. What this came down to was that, in Adler's opinion, equal education would necessarily lead to an equal, and therefore democratic, society. Equal education meant that all levels of education and all subjects were accessible to all children, under the assumption that all children had the same basic level of intelligence. This intelligence would then be the basis towards cultivating the insight necessary.