Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-2rsb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-12T17:29:47.767Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

John Dewey between Participatory Democracy and Direct Action

A Commentary on Jeff Jackson

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

William R. Caspary
William R. Caspary*
Affiliation:
Washington University
*
caspary@aol.com
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This critical commentary engages Jeff Jackson’s reading of John Dewey’s approach to participatory democracy and direct action—both are fundamental issues in democratic theory today. I probe Dewey’s texts for what I reason to be a more precise reading of his views on social movement action. I go beyond Jackson’s assertion of a role for direct action, to theorize it as an intrinsic element of participatory democracy.

Keywords

democracydirect actioninequalityJohn DeweyNew Leftparticipation

Information

Type
Critical Commentary
Information
Democratic Theory , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , June 2017, pp. 109 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Abers, Rebecca N. 2000. Inventing Local Democracy: Grassroots Politics in Brazil. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.10.1515/9781626371378CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baiocchi, Gianpaolo. 2003. “Participation, Activism, and Politics: The Porto Alegre Experiment.” Pp. 45–76 in Deepening Democracy, ed. Archon, Fung and Erik Olin, Wright. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Branch, Taylor. 1988. Parting of the Waters: America in the King Years. Cambridge, UK: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Calvert, Gregory N. 1991. Democracy from the Heart: Spiritual Values, Decentralism, and Democratic Idealism in the Movement of the 1960s. Eugene, OR: Communitas Press.Google Scholar
Caspary, William R. 2000. Dewey on Democracy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.10.7591/9781501722509CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caspary, William R. 2003. “One and the Same Method: John Dewey’s Thesis of Unity of Method in Ethics and Science.” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 39 (3): 445–468.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1916. Democracy and Education. Vol. 9 of John Dewey: The Middle Works, 1899–1924, ed. Joanne, Boydston. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1976–1988.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1922. Human Nature and Conduct. Vol. 14 of John Dewey: The Middle Works, 1899–1924, ed. Joanne, Boydston. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1976–1988.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1927. The Public and Its Problems. Vol. 2 of John Dewey: The Later Works, 1925–1953, ed. Joanne, Boydston. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1981–1991.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1931. “The Need for a New Party.” Pp. 156–181 in vol. 6 of John Dewey: The Later Works, 1925–1953, ed. Joanne, Boydston. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1981–1991.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1932. “You Must Act to Get Congress to Act.” Pp. 386–387 in vol. 6 of John Dewey: The Later Works, 1925–1953, ed. Joanne, Boydston. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1981–1991.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1935. Liberalism and Social Action. Pp. 1–65 in vol. 11 of John Dewey: The Later Works, 1925–1953, ed. Joanne, Boydston. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1981–1991.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1937. “Democracy Is Radical.” Pp. 296–299 in vol. 11 of John Dewey: The Later Works, 1925–1953, ed. Joanne, Boydston. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1981–1991.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1939. Freedom and Culture. Vol. 13 of John Dewey: The Later Works, 1925–1953, ed. Joanne, Boydston. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1981–1991.Google Scholar
Dewey, John and James, Tufts. 1932. Ethics. Vol. 7 of John Dewey: The Later Works, 1925–1953, ed. Joanne, Boydston. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1981–1991.Google Scholar
Freire, Paulo. 2007. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Cambridge, UK: Continuum.Google Scholar
Green, Judith M. 2008. Pragmatism and Social Hope: Deepening Democracy in Global Context. Cambridge, UK: Columbia University Press.10.7312/gree14458CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayden, Tom, and Dick, Flacks. 2002. “The Port Huron Statement at 40.” Nation, 5 August.Google Scholar
Hildreth, R. W. 2012. “Word and Deed: A Deweyan Integration of Deliberative and Participatory Democracy.” New Political Science 34 (3): 295–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilmer, Jeffrey. 2010. “The State of Participatory Democratic Theory.” New Political Science 32 (1): 43–63.10.1080/07393140903492118CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isserman, Maurice. 2001. The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington. Cambridge, UK: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Jackson, Jeff. 2015. “Dividing Deliberative and Participatory Democracy through John Dewey.” Democratic Theory 2 (1): 63–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kabat, Marina. 2011. “Argentinean Worker-Taken Factories.” Chapter 20 in Ours to Master and to Own: Workers Control From the Commune to the Present, ed. Immanuel, Ness and xyn Dario, Azzellini. Chicago: Haymarket Books.Google Scholar
Kadlec, Alison. 2007. Dewey’s Critical Pragmatism. Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Nicolo. 1997. Discourses on Livy. Trans. Julia Conaway, Bondanella and Peter, Bondanella. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
MacPherson, C. B. 1977. The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Markoff, John. 1996. Waves of Democracy: Social Movements and Political Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.10.4135/9781452234090CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medearis, John. 2015. Why Democracy Is Oppositional. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/9780674286627CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, James. 1994. Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1970. Participatory Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 2012. “Participatory Democracy Revisited.” Perspectives on Politics 10 (1): 7–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piketty, Thomas. 2014. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Trans. Arthur, Goldhammer. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.10.4159/9780674369542CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rawls, John. 1993. Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ryan, Alan. 1995. John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism. Cambridge, UK: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Sitrin, Marina, and Dario, Azzellini. 2014. They Can’t Represent Us! Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Stears, Marc. 2010. Demanding Democracy: American Radicals in Search of a New Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Students for a Democratic Society. 1964. Port Huron Statement. Cambridge, UK: Students for a Democratic Society.Google Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney G. 2011. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511973529CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whyte, William F., and Kathleen, Whyte. 1988. Making Mondragon: The Growth and Dynamics of the Worker Cooperative Complex. Ithaca, NY: Institute of Industrial Relations.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 2001. “Activist Challenges to Deliberative Democracy.” Political Theory 29 (5): 670–690.10.1177/0090591701029005004CrossRefGoogle Scholar