Prefacing as Educating: Building Educational Utopias and Barber’s Strong Democracy

Abstract

IntroductIonBenjamin Barber wrote Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age in 1984. In the 31 years since, he has penned three prefaces. One is the companion to the 1984 edition, another came in 1990, and the third was written to commemorate the book's twentieth anniversary edition in 2003. Common to each preface is Barber's reminder that the only hope America has hangs on the realization of strong democracy. As such, he ends the 2003 preface with these words: "Strong democracy is no longer America's last best hope -it is humankind's last, best, and only hope." 1 Twenty years earlier, the preface to the first edition concluded in a similar manner: "There is one road to freedom: it lies through democracy. The last best hope, now as two hundred years ago, is that America can be America: truly self-governing and democratic, thus truly free." 2 Together, Barber's prefaces make two interrelated claims: one, that strong democracy is not only desirable, but also that it is humanity's salvation; and two, that we must keep the faith even though the desired future has not come to pass. With each new preface, the claim escalates. In the initial 1984 preface, strong democracy is American's best hope; in the final 2003 preface, it becomes humanity's only hope. But what does it mean to sustain hope in an idea for over 200 years or, in Barber's case, for 30? For Barber, it must mean, in part, that you stick with it in spite of failure. You keep writing prefaces. You keep reframing the goal as a means to sustain hope in the idea that you believe has the power to change society for the better. But three prefaces to a single text by a living author can begin take on an apologetic tone, striking a pleading note for an audience's continued ear.