Democratic Professionals as Agents of Change

Abstract

The democratic professionals in this study encourage load-bearing work by citizens in education, criminal justice, and city government. They share professionalized tasks and encourage lay participation in ways that enhance and enable collective action and deliberation about social issues. Democratic professionalism is an alternative way of understanding professionals’ potential to impact social change that differs from a “social trustee” perspective that ignores their power and a “radical critique” that shuns its use. Democratic professionals relate to society in a particular way: they regard the layperson’s knowledge and agency as critical components in resolving what have been seen as strictly professional issues of education, government, health, justice, and public safety. Contemporary democratic theory has overlooked the kinds of citizen agency and power-sharing encouraged by democratic professionals, so a more grounded theory is needed to bring into focus how individuals come together in closer proximity to handle pressing social problems.