Democracy and Conflict: Kenneth Arrow's Impossibility Theorem and John Dewey's Pragmatism

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Frederic R. Kellogg

Democracy and Conflict

Kenneth Arrow's Impossibility Theorem and John Dewey's Pragmatism

Frederic R. Kellogg

$175

Hardback

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English

Lexington Books
15 December 2023

Western philosophy, from c 1900 -; Social & political philosophy; Social theory; Political structures: democracy; Government powers

The economist Kenneth Arrow proved in 1951 that a society of diverse individual preferences could only by ordered by dictatorship. His impossibility theorem is still an axiom of contemporary welfare economics and has never been seriously challenged. The American philosopher John Dewey, who died in 1952, had claimed that voting and electoral mechanisms do not define democratic self-government. His broad conception of social conflict addresses preference diversity and resolves Arrow’s impossibility.

Since the 1980s, political scientists have focused on decision through democratic “deliberation.” Dewey saw that conversation alone is inadequate for resolution of conflicts in a democracy. Conflict is accompanied by discourse, but preferences are grounded in habits. Social habits resist adjustment in response to discourse alone, but demonstrably adjust in the process of conflict resolution, Preference conflict is distinguished from Marxist and later models, as a discovery and transformation process. It advances an original, updated theory of social conflict in a democracy relevant to today's problematic situations from discrimination to climate change and political polarization.

By: Frederic R. Kellogg
Imprint: Lexington Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 239mm, Width: 158mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 467g
ISBN: 9781793654281
ISBN 10: 179365428X
Pages: 184
Publication Date: 15 December 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Frederic R. Kellogg is research scholar at The George Washington University and visiting professor at Universidad Federal de Pernambuco in Brazil.

Reviews for Democracy and Conflict: Kenneth Arrow's Impossibility Theorem and John Dewey's Pragmatism

In this timely work, Kellogg unearths the flawed assumptions in Kenneth Arrow’s highly influential General Possibility Theorem using John Dewey’s concept of organic democracy. In so doing, Democracy and Conflict illustrates the role that extended conflict plays in continuously reconstructing the preferences and values of the public in the process of democratic deliberation. The book is a welcomed resource for readers concerned with the heightened polarization of our democratic processes as it replaces Arrow’s overly abstract and synchronic understanding of aggregated preferences with a diachronic and situated model of constant preference and habit reformation in public, democratic debate. -- Seth Vannatta, Morgan State University