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Democracy and Expertise in the Lippmann-Terman Controversy

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Arnold-Forster, TP 

Abstract

Historians often interpret American political thought in the early twentieth century through an opposition between the technocratic power of expertise and the deliberative promise of democracy, respectively represented by Walter Lippmann and John Dewey. This article explores Lippmann's concurrent controversy with Lewis Terman about intelligence testing, in which Dewey also intervened. It argues that the Lippmann–Terman controversy dramatized and developed a range of ideas about the politics of expertise in a democracy, which centered on explaining how democratic citizens might engage with and control the authority of experts. It concludes by examining the controversy's influence on democratic theory.

Description

Keywords

43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, 44 Human Society, 4303 Historical Studies, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies, 4408 Political Science

Journal Title

Modern Intellectual History

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1479-2443
1479-2451

Volume Title

Publisher

Cambridge University Press
Sponsorship
AHRC (1504278)