Even the specialist finds it difficult to trace the chain of “cause and effect”; and even he operates only after the event, looking backward, while meantime social activities have moved on to effect a new state of affairs.
Dewey points out that even experts struggle to understand cause and effect in social issues, often reflecting on past events.
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Mistakes pile up and consolidate themselves into laws and methods of administration which are more harmful than the consequences which they were originally intended to control.
There are even those who hold that the presumption is always that social loss will result from agents of the public doing anything which could be done by persons in their private capacity.
Personal loyalties to elders take the place of political obedience.
The democratic public is still largely inchoate and unorganized.