Bringing expert knowledge to bear in an open and deliberative way to help solve pressing social problems is a major concern today, when technocratic and bureaucratic decision making often occurs with little or no input from the general public. Albert Dzur proposes an approach he calls “democratic professionalism” to build bridges between specialists in domains like law, medicine, and journalism and the lay public in such a way as to enable and enhance broader public engagement with and deliberation about major social issues. Sparking a critical and constructive dialogue among social theories of the professions, professional ethics, and political theories of deliberative democracy, Dzur reveals interests, motivations, strengths, and vulnerabilities in conventional professional roles that provide guideposts for this new approach. He then applies it in examining three practical arenas in which experiments in collaboration and power-sharing between professionals and citizens have been undertaken: public journalism, restorative justice, and the bioethics movement. Finally, he draws lessons from these cases to refine this innovative theory and identify the kinds of challenges practitioners face in being both democratic and professional.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Ethics and Politics of Professions
1. The Missing Agents of Contemporary Democratic Thought
2. Beyond Self-Interest: The Apolitical Picture of Professionals
3. Professionals versus Democracy: The Radical Critique of Technocrats, Disabling Experts, and Task M.onopolists
4. Task Sharing for Democracy: Themes from Political Theory
5. Public Journalism
6. Restorative Justice
7. Bioethics
8. Context and Consequences: The Duties of Democratic Professionals
Conclusion: The University’s Role in the Democratization of Professional Ethics
Index
“At a time in which Elinor Ostrom has won the Nobel Prize for demonstrating the importance of the coproduction of public goods by citizens, we are fortunate to have a book that discusses the role professionals can play in aligning their routines with the work that citizens do in coproduction. Professor Dzur also raises the issue of what responsibility universities have to a democratic citizenry, since these institutions prepare most of our professionals. Perhaps the civic engagement that higher education promotes can begin internally as well as externally.”
