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92 Nat'l Civic Rev. 1 (2003)

handle is hein.journals/natmnr92 and id is 1 raw text is: NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT There is a well-known quote from the famous Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard: Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. In a less abstract way than it figures in Kierkegaard's philosophy, this epigram informed a recent talk that journalist and author James Fallows gave at the National Press Club on the different contributions that historians and journalists make to our understanding of public events. Historians have the benefit of sifting the past to establish the significance of events over time. Journalists seek to report what is important but often lack the context to dis- tinguish the superficial from the essential. It is in the realm of politics, how- ever, where one must act rather than explain or describe, that the dilemma expressed in Kierkegaard's saying is felt most keenly. Events, beginning with September 11, 2001, have punctured the opti- mism expressed in Francis Fukuyama's article (later expanded into a book) The End of History? We cannot know whether we will see another form of government succeed liberal democracy, but we can easily recognize the immen- sity of the challenges we face in improving the system we now have. The end of the Cold War confirmed the consensus in the West that market-based polities were more economically productive and more protective of political freedom than any other alternative. But in thinking about the many reasons that this is so, an anomaly emerges based on the evident difference between the efficiency of our economic system and the effectiveness of our political system. Our needs and desires as consumers are more easily met than are our needs and desires as citizens. There is no single reason why this should be the case, but a little reflec- tion suggests a clue. As consumers, our ability to satisfy our needs and wants is directly related to our role as economic actors. The more our efforts are rewarded in the marketplace, the more we are able to purchase the goods and services we want or desire. But what is our role as producers of political resources? If our primary involvement in the political system is limited to the occasional act of voting, how much should we expect to be able to influence political outcomes in ways that would satisfy our needs and desires as citizens? What would it mean to be a more productive citizen? One reason that competitive economic markets are so efficient is that economic agents are able to incorporate new information rapidly into their decision making and activity The price system is a marvel for communicating information without centralized control. Political markets lack these rich chan- nels for the flow of information, and the adaptive response to change on the part of political actors other than those in leadership positions is sluggish by comparison. One way, then, of improving our political system would be to NATIONAL Civic REVIEW, vol. 92, no. 1, Spring 2003 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1

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