Description

Uniting Mississippi: Democracy and Leadership in the South applies a new, philosophically informed theory of democratic leadership to Mississippi's challenges. Governor William F. Winter has written a foreword for the book, supporting the proposals that it presents. The book begins with an examination of Mississippi's apparent Catch-22, namely the difficulty of addressing problems of poverty without fixing issues in education first, and vice versa. The author argues that this apparent difficulty can be overcome. Since the approach to addressing poverty has for so long been unsuccessful, the problem of poverty is reconsidered. The challenges of educational failure are explored to reveal the extent to which there appears to be a caste system of schooling, in which certain groups of people are educated in schools that are underfunded and failing. The ideals of democracy reject hierarchies of citizenship, and thus are tested in Mississippi. Theories of good leadership in general and of democratic leadership in particular are introduced to show how Mississippi's challenges could be addressed with the guidance of democratic values. The book draws on insights from classical and contemporary philosophical outlooks on leadership, which highlight four key social virtues: wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. Within this framework, Mississippi's problems of poverty and educational frustration are approached in a novel way that is applicable in and beyond the rural South. Each of the virtues of democratic leadership is emphasized with regard to particular problems, and the book includes some overarching lessons to draw and values to advance. The author's editorial essays are included in the appendix as examples of engagement in public inquiry for the sake of democratic leadership.