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Public Policy Course Session 17. The History of almost anything….. October 1, 2010. Definition of History.
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Public Policy Course Session 17 The History of almost anything….. October 1, 2010
Definition of History • History (from Greekἱστορία - historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation"[2]) is the study of the human past. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events. wikipedia
Most Famous Quote about History • “Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Georges Santayana- The Life of Reason 1905-6
When there is no good explanation for something • Many things do not have a good reason for being in the present • There may be no current rationale for a policy • But all policy has a history • This makes history very important
When there is no good explanation…. • History shows us all the unintended consequences of successful but ESPECIALLY….failed policies • The original intent • What got in the way • And… those policies that continue to get waylaid (e.g. childcare, reduction of greenhouse gases)
Arnold Toynbee • History is “…. not just one damn thing after another.” • “America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair. “ • “History teaches us that when a barbarian race confronts a sleeping culture, the barbarian always wins.” • “It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.”
History has a “constituency” • In any presentation of a position, a stance, an ask, there will always be those who will want to know why what is in place now should be changed • They will not want it changed until they know how the world got to where it is now. • “Original intent side-tracked” is a persuasive narrative for many – a good jumping off point.
Where did this come from? • History is part of a good narrative • Many want to know where things came from • How many times have you heard: “Where did that policy come from?” and the answer was • “…. I don’t know” • It’s important never to be caught not knowing the history of an issue • What was the reason the existing policy is in place? … never be caught out…….
Will Rogers vs. Colin Powell • Will Rogers famous dictum • “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” • Colin Powell’s rebuke: • “If it ain't broke, don't fix it' is the slogan of the complacent, the arrogant or the scared. It's an excuse for inaction”. • The gun registry debate used both sides of its history in the discussion.
‘Revisionist History’ • “What scholars call revisionist history, or the re-writing of history, can uncover bias and assumptions of racial superiority, and it can as well make all European explorers and missionaries into imperialists and capitalists, whether they were or not. Freedom from bias of any type may be impossible to achieve in historical reconstruction.” http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/History • History is always being re-written. Is it legitimate or only an ideological school? E.g. The tea-party movement • The case for Multi-’vocality’ as the only legitimate history
Dialectical History • Thesis: a position • Antithesis: the negation • Synthesis: the negation of the negation • Socrates, Kant, Hegel, Marx • Dialectics is often how we think history proceeds accroding to the progression/regression of rational thought
Policy Uses of History • Part of a compelling story • The act of ‘grounding’ a position • The act of ‘joining the debate’ • The act of ‘keeping us from going backward’ • ‘Who is best able to keep us going forward?’ • ‘How can we keep from going backward?
Policy Uses of History: An Example Two historical examples of economic progress fight for our attention: • The stimulus paradigm • The restraint paradigm How do they make their point? How do they get history on their side?
The Direction of History: The Myth of Progress • Many thinkers maintain that the totality of human history, in spite of apparent arbitrariness, possesses a large organizing theme, meaning, or direction. • Efforts to find meaning or direction in history have been criticized by thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze • They claim that it is a grave mistake to look for meaning where none can exist, because history is best characterized by discontinuities, ruptures, and various time-scales
Where are we headed? • One policy use of history is to say that failure to act or failure to preserve will take us down a dark road i.e. we won’t progress or we will regress. • The Nature frame: Lamarck vs. Charles Darwin • The civilization frame: e.g. Greece, Rome • The environment frame: destroying the planet
Chichen Itza and Tulum • Mayan civilizations rose, flourished, declined and died out • How is decline intelligible? • Conquer and defeat • The failure of military • The seeds of decline within?
The Civilization life cycle as policy metaphor • The retrospective comparative: this is the device where the advocate articulates what happened ‘when we went down this road before’ • The Future retrospective comparative: This is the device where the advocate articulates from a theoretical future point and looks back at the present: “Twenty years from now, we will look back and regret/rejoice this moment”
The redemptive value of history • "But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present." – Ronald Reagan, inaugural presidential address, 1981 • The future retrospective narrative device is best used by…….?
‘Setting the Record Straight” • The ‘record’ is important • But what is the ‘record’? • Is it history? • Who does the ‘record’ well? • When do facts matter? • When are facts (and records) irrelevant?
