Macedo, Stephen. (2000). Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy

	Macedo, Stephen. (2000). Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 384 pp. $47.50 (cloth)       ISBN 0-674-21311-4 Michele S. Moses Arizona State University June 19, 2002 According to noted political theorist, Stephen Macedo, "good citizens are not simply born that way" (p. 16). Indeed not. And with Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy, Macedo has provided us with a nuanced and detailed look at what needs to be done in order to properly foster good citizenship in a diverse liberal democratic society. This work can be included in the best of recent democratic political theory, most notably Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson's Democracy and Disagreement: Why Moral Conflict Cannot Be Avoided in Politics, and What Should Be Done about It (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996). Macedo divides the book into three parts, which helps the reader follow the organization of his thought on the subject. Part 1, "Public Schooling and American Citizenship," provides a general history of public schools in the United States, with a particular focus on their role in fostering shared civic values. He includes a notable analysis of the early relationship between Protestantism, democracy, and the common school movement. Part 2, "Liberal Civic Education and Religious Fundamentalism," examines public schooling in light of conflicts between its civic aims and parental and religious rights. Here he provides detailed analyses of important court cases dealing with the rights of deeply religious groups to opt out of parts of public education, such as Mozert v. Hawkins and Wisconsin v. Yoder. Though there is nothing very new in what he says, the details he shares help to give the reader a good context from which to understand his many arguments. His aim is to shed light on how these deep-seated conflicts ought to be handled. And, part 3, "School Reform and Civic Education," discusses how school reform might be refocused so as to support civic educational aims more strongly. Reading Diversity and Distrust is an experience in reasonableness. So often scholarship on issues as contentious as how to deal with religious and moral diversity, what the primary purposes of education should be, and how school reform ought to be structured, devolves into shrill rhetoric, with no possible compromise in sight. In Diversity and Distrust, Macedo tells a story about America and its fragile democracy that places civic ideals at the center of common life. Macedo puts forth the compelling case that we should not take it for granted that our civic aims will continue to be strongly promoted either through the educational system or through other means. Macedo follows in the recent tradition of contemporary liberal political philosophers such as Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka, who, like Macedo, also see the political theory of liberalism as necessarily not neutral with respect to competing conceptions of the good life. Yet he carves out his own particular brand of contemporary liberal theory in the form of what he calls "civic liberalism." The idea of a strong civic liberalism provides the theoretical backbone for Macedo's arguments about democracy, civic aims, diversity, and schooling. Much like traditional liberalism, Macedo's civic liberalism as an ideal political system places freedom at center; yet it moves beyond an emphasis on liberty alone to an emphasis on fostering good citizenship in order to create a society that will support freedom in the long run. Relying significantly on John Rawls' political liberalism, civic liberalism entails that citizens learn to, among other things, be tolerant of others, act responsibly, participate in public affairs, and cooperate with others. Macedo's project here is to discern just how to foster civic liberalism—how to bring civic ideals to the forefront of the liberal project. It seems like he is trying to forge a middle ground between liberals concerned with honoring diversity and particular identities, and those more concerned with promoting societal unity and shared values. As I mentioned above, throughout the work, Macedo does an admirable job of avoiding stridency. In so doing, he avoids simplifying the very complex concepts he undertakes to analyze. His approach is a moderate one, though this does not make his arguments any less forceful or well considered. He gives equal time to criticism of those on the Right of the political spectrum (e.g., John Chubb and Terry Moe) and those on the Left (e.g., Iris Marion Young). Just as he blasts traditional liberalism, he also criticizes postmodern theory based on the politics of identity. According to Macedo, diversity has large value, but it should not always be the paramount organizing virtue of our polity. The book deals mainly with religious and moral diversity rather than the issues of racial and ethnic diversity more often associated with multiculturalism. Diversity is important, but in Macedo's words, "needs to be kept in its place" (p. 3). Thus, he writes, we should not accept it uncritically. Diversity needs to be shaped so that it does not interfere with the demands of a shared civic life. He takes issue with postmodern theories that uncritically embrace difference and inclusion. After all, there are some groups whose beliefs and values warrant their exclusion (i.e., those based on ignorance and racism). He comments that "our current notion of ‘difference' is far too thin and devoid of moral content to characterize what it takes to constitute the shared life of a reasonably stable, peaceful, and mutually respectful urban order" (p. 26). He warns of the slippery slope inherent in the postmodern desire to grant equal standing to different views of the world. If equal legitimacy is granted, how then, asks Macedo insightfully, can we rightfully call into question Christian Identity worldviews that hold both Jewish people and gay people to be evil? A key to his argument regarding the limits of diversity is the issue of religious opposition to fundamental civic values. He believes that it is "a profound mistake to identify religious seriousness with illiberal religiosity" (p. 37). The central problem he sees with an unconditional love of diversity as a value above all others is that in the name of mutual respect, citizens owe each other common and nonreligious reasons for shaping the shared political morality needed for a stable democracy. If we are misguided and starry-eyed about diversity and tolerance, then we risk compromising common civic purposes. As sensible as Macedo is in crafting his theory, one weakness in the work is that he does not properly attend to the historical reality of oppressive Americanization efforts in the name of our shared civic values. He mentions that immigrants have often been treated unfairly within the educational system, yet he claims that "racist antipathy was, for the vast majority of Americans, subordinated to the hopeful conviction that with a proper education, immigrant and native-born Americans could share a common citizenship" (p. 63). His analysis of racism, power, and forced assimilation is inadequate, though in his spirit of reasonableness, he does helpfully remind us that there were complex reasons behind assimilation efforts. Still, it seems as though Macedo wants to somehow see assimilation as a good overall, despite what he calls its "excesses" (p. 103). "Assimilation," he maintains, "is not to be despised; it is rather to be embraced—if we assimilate in nonoppressive ways and toward justifiable values" (p. 146). The problem is that in our stratified society, not everyone is included in deciding whether or not the assimilation is indeed oppressive, whether or not the values are justified. Oppression can and does occur when people take "reasonable measures to secure the survival and health of our liberal civic order," (p. 151) as Macedo urges us to do. Regarding the primary aim of public education in a democracy, Macedo writes that "liberal democratic public institutions count on shaping wider social norms and expectations so that people are gently encouraged to behave in ways that are broadly supportive of our shared civic project" (p. x). In this book, Macedo does a fine job of justifying that public institutions such as schools ought to do just that; yet, it is curious that he does not examine how we go about ensuring that such gentle encouragement does not become coercive. The "shared civic project" in the United States was conceived of and developed by white Protestant men; white women, non-Protestants, and people of color were largely excluded from shaping that project. Still, Macedo insists that we believe in it and thus structure our school system around the promotion of shared civic values. Macedo is not an educationist. His concern with education is due to its prominent role in promoting civic aims. And as somewhat of an outsider to debates over public school reform, he is able to point out that in the rush to embrace market-based choice reforms, scant attention has been paid to the educational aim of advancing civic purposes. He argues that some would-be reformers are setting up a false choice between the promotion of civic purposes in public schools and religious freedom. Schools can be considerate and tolerant of religious and moral diversity without giving up the commitment to prepare a diverse group of students for participation in a democratic society. He is rightly skeptical of market-based reform schemes that have as their putative primary concern raising academic achievement (as measured by standardized test scores). According to Macedo, any reforms that take place should center on improving the quality of education, especially civic education. But by placing the civic purposes of public education prior to any other educational aims, Macedo leaves aside other purposes, which are important in their own right. For example, what of equal opportunity? Shouldn't the top priority of public schools be to level students' morally arbitrary starting places in life? Macedo fails to contend with other prominent liberal theorists such as Ronald Dworkin, who posit that equality, rather than liberty, should be the core principle of our liberal democracy. Perhaps a deeper consideration of equality would lead Macedo too far afloat from his central project. It nonetheless remains an important facet to the question of how to best deal with diversity. All told, Macedo has attempted to, in his words, "grapple with the hard questions posed by the tensions between deep diversity and our shared civic ideals in modern societies" (p. 109). He has done so admirably. In fact, near the end of the book, Macedo mentions his next project—a companion piece to this book where he moves beyond public schools and examines the civic imperatives of other political institutions. I await the completion of his next project with anticipation. After reading Diversity and Distrust, I trust that other readers will feel the same. Note Reprinted with permission from the American Journal of Education (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJE/home.html). About the Reviewer Michele S. Moses is Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Arizona State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, specializing in the philosophy of education and education policy analysis. She is the author of a new book, Embracing Race: Why We Need Race-Conscious Education Policy (Teachers College Press, 2002). Her research focuses on issues of equality and social justice within education policies related to multiculturalism and poverty.