Receiving stories in agency rulemakings is integral to American democracy.
For a recent paper, we reviewed the thousands of public comments sent to federal agencies in 35 rulemakings and found more stories than we could ever have imagined. Not only that, many stories revealed the enduring relevance of an observation by Alexis de Tocqueville that the “social condition of the Americans is eminently democratic.” Americans, he observed, are eager to participate in the social and political life of their young country.
The comments we found, and the stories in them, were provided as part of the notice-and-comment rulemaking process in which administrative agencies publish detailed proposed rules and request feedback from the public. In reading the stories in these comments, we were struck by the willingness of ordinary individuals to engage in detail with proposals and lend insight built on personal experience.
In a time of wholesale assaults on the administrative state, such research may seem quaint. It is not. Surveying these stories reveals people’s complex hopes and frustrations with the administrative state and the importance of public agencies retaining the capacity to listen and act on the stories they hear.
The rules we surveyed were proposed by six different Administrations of different political parties and ranged across all government activities. Some rules were highly controversial—some less so. We found everyone was telling stories for all sorts of reasons. Some stories seemed self-serving. Others were conspiracy theories. Many stories were about personal experience, and the dignity of individuals and of others was a persistent theme. Some stories had been crafted with love, some had been drafted in haste, and some were written with the professional skill of an advocate. Some were laugh-out-loud funny, and some brought tears to our eyes.
In reading these stories, we could not help but develop a deeper understanding of the complexities of the regulatory issues involved. These stories were not just people having their say. In many cases, people’s stories added information and perspectives that would not have otherwise been available to an agency and aided in crafting a robust set of rules for specific circumstances. It was not surprising that we found examples of agencies discussing the relevance of stories in their final rules.
What was also clear from our survey was the need for agencies to sift carefully through these stories. Many stories are valuable, but not all are relevant, correct, or told in good faith. An agency’s expertise must include the ability to foster meaningful storytelling and evaluate how to incorporate these stories into regulation.
That expertise is a set of institutional and human skills, knowledge, and experience in interacting with people in a respectful and empathetic way. It is a very different sort than those embodied in analytical techniques such as cost-benefit analysis or in the forms of artificial intelligence tools used to “process” public comments. In particular, the belief that artificial intelligence can effectively listen to people’s stories denies human agency and dignity.
In the Trump Administration’s efforts to shrink government and force out—or fire—many of its most experienced civil servants, the importance of listening to stories has been completely lost. At a time when people feel they are being ignored by the government, that is a serious problem. Deconstructing the administrative state is only going to make it worse.
In 1943, Norman Rockwell painted Freedom of Speech—a painting that depicted a working-class man standing and speaking among white-collar men. In an exercise of his freedom of speech, that man was likely telling a story. Whatever limitations the picture has as an idealization, it captures something fundamental about the American polity—a deep commitment to having one’s say and hearing the other side out. Despite the polarization, this commitment remains the fundamental aspect of American democracy as a conversation about the roles of government and markets in building the country.
That is why inviting and listening to stories in the regulatory process is an important part of American democracy. That is why taking a chainsaw to the administrative state is so disastrous.
