6 Dec 2007, Frank W. Lutz and Laurence Iannaccone
[This is an abstract of a paper given at the symposium School Board Research: Main Lines of Inquiry, in Des Moines, Iowa, September 14-15, 2007. The full paper is published in Relevancy and Revelation: The Future of School Board Governance, by Rowman and Littlefield, Spring 2008.]
The Dissatisfaction Theory of American Democracy says simply that when the citizens of our democracy become dissatisfied enough with “things,” they go to the polls and vote to change “things.” Often the “things” they vote to change are the incumbent policy makers. On school boards, it is the incumbent school board members who are voted out. The newly elected board members often fire the old superintendent and education policies change. The purpose of this chapter is to describe how this theory came to be while also saying a bit more about policy, research and theory in the politics of education in general.
In 1960, a new doctoral student at Washington University in St. Louis decided to run for a seat on a local school board in one of the more than two dozen St. Louis County, school districts. He was just about to begin a two and a half year residency and had no idea of a topic or a general idea of what his dissertation might be. Laurence Iannaccone, a new professor out Teachers College, Columbia, became his advisor. Iannaccone suggested that Lutz keep a careful journal of his experiences during the school board election and a diary of daily events should he be elected as a school board member. Lutz was also assigned a bibliography of readings of classical anthropological works in order to understand how ethnographic description was carried out. Thus began a long and rewarding personal and professional relationship between Iannaccone and Lutz and the seeds of the Dissatisfaction Theory were sown. Robertsdale was “founded” and Prentice and Joyce “were born” (see Lutz 1962).