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Why should we educate about democracy and capitalism? This essay discusses the intricacies and necessity of teaching these pivotal systems, emphasizing the use of engaging strategies like case studies to enhance understanding and stimulate informed decision-making in real-world contexts.

Image courtesy of interviewee. November 14, 2024

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This video discusses the importance of teaching democracy and capitalism within the context of the current political climate in the United States, particularly as the country approaches a presidential election. It highlights that many students lack adequate knowledge of these complex systems, often shaped by social media influences, and suggests a need for a student-centered learning approach.

The author advocates for active learning strategies, such as case studies, where students engage with real-world problems and data, allowing them to develop their reasoning and decision-making skills. It emphasizes the necessity of motivating students with relevant issues rather than abstract textbook concepts.

Two types of case studies are described: decision-based, where students take on the role of decision-makers, and analytical cases, where students analyze data to draw conclusions. The teaching method used at the University of Virginia's Darden Business School involves preparing students for interactive discussions based on real data and decision-making contexts.

Finally, the text stresses the need to teach core knowledge about democracy and capitalism, develop analytical and synthesis skills, and foster judgment among students. By effectively engaging students in the learning process, it aims to create a deeper understanding and lasting impact regarding these essential subjects. The author argues that teaching these concepts is critical for students' preparedness in a democratic republic and market economy, as they relate to global welfare and reduce poverty significantly.

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Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Teaching Democracy and Capitalism**: The video emphasizes the importance of teaching democracy and capitalism as vital components of personal agency and functioning within a democratic republic and market economy. It highlights that many students enter learning environments with limited knowledge of these concepts, necessitating effective instruction.

2. **Student-Centered Learning Approach**: The author advocates for a student-centered learning approach, which begins with the students’ existing knowledge and frames discussions around questions and problems they can relate to. This method is designed to engage students actively and meaningfully in learning.

3. **Active Learning Methods**: The video discusses the significance of active learning through case studies, which provide real-world problems for students to analyze and solve. Examples include decision-based and analytical case studies that require students to engage deeply with the material and draw their own conclusions.

4. **Impactful Lessons and Retention**: The author highlights the effectiveness of teaching methods that promote "sticky learning"—knowledge that stays with students long after they complete their studies. This is achieved by immersing students in discussions and challenges that encourage them to think critically and apply what they’ve learned.

5. **Core Knowledge, Skills, and Wisdom**: The teaching agenda includes three critical components: core knowledge of democracy and capitalism, skills for analysis and synthesis, and the development of wisdom. The author argues that wisdom, which involves moral reasoning and judgment, should be cultivated alongside knowledge and skills to prepare students for real-world decision-making.

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Here are some key quotes extracted from the video that encapsulate important themes and ideas:

1. **Motivation to Teach Democracy and Capitalism**:
- “It's important to teach democracy and capitalism because they're vital personal agency and life in a democratic republic, a market economy.”

2. **Student Engagement**:
- “My motto is, you learn best at which you teach yourself.”
- “The approach begins where the student is. It's called student-centered learning.”

3. **Learning Process**:
- “Often talking, as teachers everywhere know, you really don't know something until you can help to explain it to someone else.”

4. **Case Studies as Teaching Tools**:
- “In my article, I discuss case studies that are loaded with relevant data.”
- “There are actually many kinds, but the two kinds that are readily available to instructors and learners... decision based case studies... analytical cases.”

5. **Importance of Realistic Problem-Solving**:
- “It's very important for the instructor to frame, for the students at hand, and to provide an interesting problem... that would prompt the student to puzzle and wrestle with the problem.”

6. **Impact of Education**:
- “I've had students come to me many years after graduating... to say that the lessons learned... made an indelible impression.”

7. **Relation Between Democracy and Capitalism**:
- “Democracy and capitalism do tend to progress together... one tends to encourage the other.”

8. **Teaching Objectives**:
- “It's important to teach three aspects: core knowledge, skills of analysis, and building wisdom.”

9. **Reflection on Learning and Judgment**:
- “Everyone builds judgment through trial and error. The famous quip of Walter Riston... experience comes from bad judgment.”

These quotes reflect the central concern of the video regarding the significance of teaching democracy and capitalism, the methods and motivations for engaging students effectively, and the broader impact of these educational efforts.

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Is motivated by this, by the, the context of,

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sharp disagreement in the political

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environment in the United States.

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Uh, as we head into the presidential election next week, it,

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it reaches a peak,

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but this has been, bubbling away for years

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and is unlikely to simmer down anytime soon.

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It's important to teach democracy and capitalism

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because, they're, they're vital

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to the ability of students, to be prepared for

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personal agency and, life in

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a democratic republic, a a market economy.

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And, I find that many students,

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particularly undergraduates, don't, come into the

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learning experience very well informed about either topic.

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The topics are complicated,

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and, students tend to bring to those topics, attitudes

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and information shaped by social media, by word of mouth,

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among other students, and by, perhaps outright,

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information we're all aware of, of attempts by,

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other parties to influence elections

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and drive public opinion in various ways.

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So, so I think it's important to help students make meaning

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for themselves and the way they make meaning.

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Now, responding to your question is, to,

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to teach themselves.

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Um, my, my motto is,

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you learn best at which you teach yourself.

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And so that it's very important to serve up to students,

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problems and, decision settings in which they must,

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resolve the issue in front of them

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and be prepared to talk about it.

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Often talking as, as,

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teachers everywhere know you really don't know something

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until you can help to explain it to someone else.

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And therefore, a discussion based

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approach is vitally important.

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Um, our approach begins where the student is.

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It's called student-centered learning.

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You, you frame a set of questions

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and a discussion problem at the level at which

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students come into the classroom.

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They may be, they may be undergraduates, they may be

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PhD candidates, they may be, people,

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simply looking

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for a little more information in a non-credit,

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environment.

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It's important to, to serve up to those students

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problems and situations that they can grasp within, say,

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a 90 minute class session,

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having done the reading in advance,

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and, discuss the analysis of the problem,

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Problem and, possible resolutions.

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Um, there, it it's very important, of course,

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to motivate students, not with abstract textbook kinds

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of problems, but with, real problems sustained by

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relevant data for that purpose.

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In my article, I discuss case studies that are,

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that, that portray real problems

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and that are loaded with re relevant data.

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To begin a low engagement,

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activity would be passive learning,

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which would be sitting in a lecture hall, taking notes,

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listening to a lecturer,

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expound on whatever the topic the day is.

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Uh, passive learning tends to result in,

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rapid accumulation of knowledge and, rapid loss.

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So students, students can memory memorize names, dates,

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facts of, of a setting or a problem, and very shortly

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after an examination on those, will for yeah, them.

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Uh, what's important is to teach students a means

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of reasoning through a, a problem reasoning through a,

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a, a a kind of analysis.

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And for that purpose, we wanna frame,

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the problem in realistic terms, in, in terms suitable

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for the level of the student, that day,

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and ly motivating to the student,

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that would prompt the student to puzzle

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and wrestle with the problem.

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Um, as everyone's grandmother teaches us

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that nothing good comes without a struggle of some kind.

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So it is in learning,

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and it's very important for the instructor to frame,

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a learning challenge that's suitable

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for the students at hand,

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and to provide an, an interesting problem, perhaps,

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relevant to the setting that students find them in,

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find themselves in there.

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And then, in my article,

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I described two kinds of case studies.

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There are actually many kinds,

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but the, the two kinds that are readily available to

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instructors and, learners of all kinds would be,

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decision based case studies that, serve up

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a great deal of data on a, a problem setting,

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and frame a, a decision for the students,

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putting the students in the shoes of a decision maker

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and asking the student

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to bring forward a recommendation, make a choice.

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An example would be, a case study set on,

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in, in the 1870s with,

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the consequence of the Civil War, which had, in which the,

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the government of the north, the, the, the union government,

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so to speak, had issued, greenbacks.

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These were IOUs by the federal government promising

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to pay the holder in gold at some date in the future.

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Uh, the date, left open and unspecified,

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and the greenbacks often traded at a

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serious discount to gold.

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And the question, that was brought up

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to the highest court in the United States, is this,

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is this legal should, should not the government,

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immediately settle all of its debts in gold, as opposed

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to allow these certificates of, promise

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to pay, to circulate in the economy.

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This is the beginning, of course, of the green

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colored currency that has been enforced in the

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United States ever since.

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But at, at the day, it's quite a controversial problem,

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is, is fiat money, money

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is the deep question.

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And students come to that case needing to decide

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what the Supreme Court of the United States should decide.

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And it's a, it's a very stimulating problem.

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It is a problem framed by the extreme urgency

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of the crisis, of the Civil War, the,

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the very deep indebtedness of the,

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of the federal government, of the country,

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and the likelihood that it would take years to

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repay the debt and to, to emerge back to a,

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a gold standard in the United States.

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So that's a decision based case.

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There are, analytical cases where the, the challenge

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of the student is to, to, to take a sample of data

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and, describe, whether,

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the, the observations in the data, conform, let us say

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to the model of a, democracy or an autocracy

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or conform to the model of a market-based

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IE capitalist economy, as opposed

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to a centrally planned economy.

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So students, are not simply told what are

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democracies and autocracies, capitalist systems

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and, centrally planned systems.

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They, they have to get into the data

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and, decide for themselves.

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And in so doing, it creates a very deep impression,

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that, that actually, sticks.

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I call it, as I said, sticky learning.

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So all of my career, I've, I've, been an instructor

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here at the University of Virginia's Darden Business School,

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where we teach by the ACE method.

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And students, are certainly encouraged to consult,

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textbooks and online sources of information.

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But every day, students are asked to come to class prepared

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to discuss three decision settings

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or analytical challenges in, in open discussion.

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And it's, it's quite impactful.

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I've had students come to me many, many years

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after graduating from our program to say that,

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the lessons learned in the program,

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made an indelible impression.

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They range from, market systems

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in, in which, governments place great faith in,

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in markets to, to do what needs to be done, to set prices.

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They, they intervene rather less.

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They, they have a rather lighter regulatory touch.

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And, and, systems such as those

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that exist in the United States, the uk, Australia,

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New Zealand, Canada, the Anglo,

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American system as it's sometimes called would, would be

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exemplars at that extreme, at, at a midpoint.

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You might have, systems such as

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exist on the continent, Germany, France, Japan,

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and then you have systems

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that are much more centrally ordered.

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Certainly China's and Vietnams would be examples of those.

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Uh, and at the very, very far extreme,

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Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba,

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where the government sets prices, rations,

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goods and services, et cetera.

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Uh, so we have exercises that students

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to categorize countries, they, they're not named

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so that any student with foreknowledge doesn't immediately

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categorize the student.

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But, on the basis of the data, please,

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tell us in which category these countries might belong.

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It's a very stimulating exercise, especially, by the end

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of the class session when, the great reveal occurs

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and students are shown the, the identities of the countries.

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That would be an example of an analytic, case problem.

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And, and the decision based case problems are,

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legion.

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Uh, the Darden Business School, publishes these cases,

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makes 'em available publicly.

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Harvard Business School does, university of Western Ontario

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and others teaching democracy and capitalism is hard.

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Uh, both systems are quite complicated

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when you get into them in any detail.

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Uh, as I said, students bring little familiarity generally,

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and, and there is a great deal

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of misinformation out there to be overcome.

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Um, yet the systems, both systems are

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highly material to the life experience of students,

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not only in developed economies,

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but in developing economies.

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Um, more than 60% of the world's,

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gross domestic product is accounted for by,

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countries with market economies.

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You cannot avoid,

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engaging capitalist economies in some way, shape

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or form, even if you live in a,

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a highly centrally planned economy, where

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generally speaking, authorities do allow market exchange,

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but in gray market and black market fashion.

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So, citizens all over the world will deal with

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the, the experience of voluntary

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and indeed some, sometimes involuntary market exchange.

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Um, it's certainly important to teach democracy

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and capitalism,

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because of, their association with

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dramatic growth in human welfare.

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The standard statistic afforded by the World Bank is

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that in 1991,

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2 billion people lived in extreme poverty.

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Uh, by, 2019,

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that number had fallen to 698 million,

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despite a dramatic growth in world population over those,

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30 years.

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Uh, and largely that

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decline in extreme poverty is due to the growth

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of international trade, transfer of technology,

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capital investment across borders, the relaxation of,

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government regulations and central planning and,

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and, force, terms of exchange.

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So it's due to the spread of capitalist systems.

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I would argue as well, that it's due to the liberalization

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of governments around the world.

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The growth of democracy.

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Democracy and capitalism do tend to progress together,

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not evenly, not in lockstep,

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but one tends to encourage the,

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the expansion of the other.

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Certainly, there are arguments

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that the two systems carry great moral legitimacy.

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This, can foster a very stimulating debate,

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sometimes passionate debate among students.

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But, it's important for students to understand the,

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the foundations of those arguments

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and what the extent to which they may apply

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in their own lives and in their own countries.

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It's very important to, to teach three aspects

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of democracy and capitalism.

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The first is core knowledge.

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Uh, and, and of course, this would be on the agenda

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of virtually any instructor,

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but it's, knowledge about the origins of the systems,

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how they work, the dimensions of the, the systems

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today, the different forms the systems could take.

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Um, the second dimension would be skills, skills

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of analysis, skills of synthesis,

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and, skills of, of, of,

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distinction, if you will.

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Uh, being able

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to identify varying forms and the like.

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Uh, skills can be advanced by, problems

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and exercises, either highly structured

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or rather unstructured.

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But, going from knowledge to skills, knowledge building

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to skill building is a big leap.

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And even bigger leap addresses the third attribute,

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and that is, building judgment, building a sense of,

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priorities in the mind of the student.

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And, we might call this building wisdom.

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Uh, many instructors, shy away from this.

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They, they feel that, building knowledge,

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building skills are quite sufficient.

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Uh, you know, everyone builds judgment

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through trial and error.

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The, the, the famous, quip of, Walter Riston,

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the former CEO of Citigroup, was,

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good judgment comes from experience,

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and experience comes from bad judgment.

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So if you, if you, if you try

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and fail, you learn, you try again,

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you get a little better, you try again.

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But you can, you can frame

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that much more effectively in a classroom setting,

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making it safe for students to justify

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their recommendations on moral grounds

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and hear the potential objections

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of other students in class.

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And, and potentially revise

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their recommendations based on, moral,

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outrage or moral, support, but knowledge, skills,

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and judgment amount to the know what, know

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how, and know why.

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And that constitutes deep learning.

Teaching Democracy and Capitalism in a Divided Political Climate

00:00:00 - Is motivated by this, by the, the context of, sharp disagreement in the political environment in the United States. as we head into the presidential election next week, it, it reaches a peak, but this has been, bubbling away for years and is unlikely to simmer down anytime soon. It's important to teach democracy and capitalism because, they're, they're vital

00:00:35 - personal agency and, life in a democratic republic, a a market economy. And, I find that many students, particularly undergraduates, don't, come into the learning experience very well informed about either topic. The topics are complicated, and, students tend to bring to those topics, attitudes

00:01:08 - among other students, and by, perhaps outright, information we're all aware of, of attempts by, other parties to influence elections and drive public opinion in various ways. So, so I think it's important to help students make meaning for themselves and the way they make meaning. Now, responding to your question is, to,

Empowering Learning through Problem-Solving

00:01:36 - my, my motto is, you learn best at which you teach yourself. And so that it's very important to serve up to students, problems and, decision settings in which they must, resolve the issue in front of them and be prepared to talk about it. Often talking as, as, teachers everywhere know you really don't know something until you can help to explain it to someone else.

00:02:08 - approach is vitally important. our approach begins where the student is. It's called student-centered learning. You, you frame a set of questions and a discussion problem at the level at which students come into the classroom. They may be, they may be undergraduates, they may be PhD candidates, they may be, people, simply looking for a little more information in a non-credit,

00:02:40 - It's important to, to serve up to those students problems and situations that they can grasp within, say, a 90 minute class session, having done the reading in advance, and, discuss the analysis of the problem, Problem and, possible resolutions. there, it it's very important, of course, to motivate students, not with abstract textbook kinds

Engaging Students Through Real-World Case Studies

00:03:16 - relevant data for that purpose. In my article, I discuss case studies that are, that, that portray real problems and that are loaded with re relevant data. To begin a low engagement, activity would be passive learning, which would be sitting in a lecture hall, taking notes, listening to a lecturer, expound on whatever the topic the day is.

00:03:47 - rapid accumulation of knowledge and, rapid loss. So students, students can memory memorize names, dates, facts of, of a setting or a problem, and very shortly after an examination on those, will for yeah, them. what's important is to teach students a means of reasoning through a, a problem reasoning through a,

00:04:17 - And for that purpose, we wanna frame, the problem in realistic terms, in, in terms suitable for the level of the student, that day, and ly motivating to the student, that would prompt the student to puzzle and wrestle with the problem. as everyone's grandmother teaches us that nothing good comes without a struggle of some kind. So it is in learning, and it's very important for the instructor to frame,

Engaging Students with Decision-Based Case Studies

00:04:50 - for the students at hand, and to provide an, an interesting problem, perhaps, relevant to the setting that students find them in, find themselves in there. And then, in my article, I described two kinds of case studies. There are actually many kinds, but the, the two kinds that are readily available to instructors and, learners of all kinds would be, decision based case studies that, serve up

00:05:26 - and frame a, a decision for the students, putting the students in the shoes of a decision maker and asking the student to bring forward a recommendation, make a choice. An example would be, a case study set on, in, in the 1870s with, the consequence of the Civil War, which had, in which the,

00:05:55 - so to speak, had issued, greenbacks. These were IOUs by the federal government promising to pay the holder in gold at some date in the future. the date, left open and unspecified, and the greenbacks often traded at a serious discount to gold. And the question, that was brought up to the highest court in the United States, is this,

Debating Currency: The Gold Standard and Supreme Court Decision-Making

00:06:27 - immediately settle all of its debts in gold, as opposed to allow these certificates of, promise to pay, to circulate in the economy. This is the beginning, of course, of the green colored currency that has been enforced in the United States ever since. But at, at the day, it's quite a controversial problem,

00:06:58 - is the deep question. And students come to that case needing to decide what the Supreme Court of the United States should decide. And it's a, it's a very stimulating problem. It is a problem framed by the extreme urgency of the crisis, of the Civil War, the, the very deep indebtedness of the, of the federal government, of the country,

00:07:31 - repay the debt and to, to emerge back to a, a gold standard in the United States. So that's a decision based case. There are, analytical cases where the, the challenge of the student is to, to, to take a sample of data and, describe, whether, the, the observations in the data, conform, let us say

Engaging Students in Capitalism and Democracy: The Power of Sticky Learning

00:08:03 - or conform to the model of a market-based IE capitalist economy, as opposed to a centrally planned economy. So students, are not simply told what are democracies and autocracies, capitalist systems and, centrally planned systems. They, they have to get into the data and, decide for themselves.

00:08:35 - that, that actually, sticks. I call it, as I said, sticky learning. So all of my career, I've, I've, been an instructor here at the University of Virginia's Darden Business School, where we teach by the ACE method. And students, are certainly encouraged to consult, textbooks and online sources of information. But every day, students are asked to come to class prepared

00:09:06 - or analytical challenges in, in open discussion. And it's, it's quite impactful. I've had students come to me many, many years after graduating from our program to say that, the lessons learned in the program, made an indelible impression. They range from, market systems in, in which, governments place great faith in,

Regulatory Approaches Across Political Economies

00:09:40 - They, they intervene rather less. They, they have a rather lighter regulatory touch. And, and, systems such as those that exist in the United States, the uk, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Anglo, American system as it's sometimes called would, would be exemplars at that extreme, at, at a midpoint.

00:10:12 - exist on the continent, Germany, France, Japan, and then you have systems that are much more centrally ordered. Certainly China's and Vietnams would be examples of those. and at the very, very far extreme, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba, where the government sets prices, rations,

00:10:43 - so we have exercises that students to categorize countries, they, they're not named so that any student with foreknowledge doesn't immediately categorize the student. But, on the basis of the data, please, tell us in which category these countries might belong. It's a very stimulating exercise, especially, by the end

Teaching Democracy and Capitalism: Challenges and Case Studies

00:11:18 - and students are shown the, the identities of the countries. That would be an example of an analytic, case problem. And, and the decision based case problems are, legion. the Darden Business School, publishes these cases, makes 'em available publicly. Harvard Business School does, university of Western Ontario and others teaching democracy and capitalism is hard.

00:11:51 - when you get into them in any detail. as I said, students bring little familiarity generally, and, and there is a great deal of misinformation out there to be overcome. yet the systems, both systems are highly material to the life experience of students, not only in developed economies, but in developing economies.

00:12:22 - gross domestic product is accounted for by, countries with market economies. You cannot avoid, engaging capitalist economies in some way, shape or form, even if you live in a, a highly centrally planned economy, where generally speaking, authorities do allow market exchange, but in gray market and black market fashion.

Teaching Democracy and Capitalism: Impacts on Human Welfare

00:12:54 - the, the experience of voluntary and indeed some, sometimes involuntary market exchange. it's certainly important to teach democracy and capitalism, because of, their association with dramatic growth in human welfare. The standard statistic afforded by the World Bank is that in 1991,

00:13:22 - by, 2019, that number had fallen to 698 million, despite a dramatic growth in world population over those, 30 years. and largely that decline in extreme poverty is due to the growth of international trade, transfer of technology,

00:13:55 - government regulations and central planning and, and, force, terms of exchange. So it's due to the spread of capitalist systems. I would argue as well, that it's due to the liberalization of governments around the world. The growth of democracy. Democracy and capitalism do tend to progress together, not evenly, not in lockstep, but one tends to encourage the,

Teaching Democracy and Capitalism: Knowledge, Skills, and Moral Legitimacy

00:14:26 - Certainly, there are arguments that the two systems carry great moral legitimacy. This, can foster a very stimulating debate, sometimes passionate debate among students. But, it's important for students to understand the, the foundations of those arguments and what the extent to which they may apply in their own lives and in their own countries. It's very important to, to teach three aspects

00:14:56 - The first is core knowledge. and, and of course, this would be on the agenda of virtually any instructor, but it's, knowledge about the origins of the systems, how they work, the dimensions of the, the systems today, the different forms the systems could take. the second dimension would be skills, skills of analysis, skills of synthesis,

00:15:30 - distinction, if you will. being able to identify varying forms and the like. skills can be advanced by, problems and exercises, either highly structured or rather unstructured. But, going from knowledge to skills, knowledge building to skill building is a big leap. And even bigger leap addresses the third attribute,

Fostering Wisdom in Student Learning

00:16:05 - priorities in the mind of the student. And, we might call this building wisdom. many instructors, shy away from this. They, they feel that, building knowledge, building skills are quite sufficient. you know, everyone builds judgment through trial and error. The, the, the famous, quip of, Walter Riston, the former CEO of Citigroup, was,

00:16:35 - and experience comes from bad judgment. So if you, if you, if you try and fail, you learn, you try again, you get a little better, you try again. But you can, you can frame that much more effectively in a classroom setting, making it safe for students to justify their recommendations on moral grounds and hear the potential objections of other students in class.

00:17:22 - their recommendations based on, moral, outrage or moral, support, but knowledge, skills, and judgment amount to the know what, know how, and know why. And that constitutes deep learning.

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