The Experience of Innumerable Minds: Diversity in Policy Making

Hosted as part of the University of Michigan's 2010 Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium.

Scott E. Page is Professor of Complex Systems, Political Science and Economics and the Director of the Center for the Study of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that 'our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds.' That insight rings especially true in the context of policy making, where diverse thoughts, experiences, beliefs and models prove critical to the process of constructing good policy. As policy problems grow more difficult and as the coupling of policy interactions produces greater complexity, the benefits of diversity become even more pronounced, provided that we agree on fundamental ends.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Public Policy in Diverse Societies and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

• DEI