The Listening State

Abstract

The era of social media and the general white noise of the Information Age increasingly demand policymakers to supply opinions about anything at any time, tempting politicians to take a position on issues without a deep understanding of them. Policymakers across the West are increasingly removed from the rich reality of the constituents they seek to serve. A state apparatus incapable of listening to—of truly understanding—its citizens and the world around it inevitably makes policies that are doomed to fail. In this chapter, we argue that to ensure effective policies in the midst of the Information Age, states must adopt a new mode of listening: one that replaces quick assumptions with a fundamental openness toward the world and a deep qualitative understanding of people’s reality.