The Public and Its Problems

Published in 1927, this work is John Dewey’s response to a wave of thinkers, Walter Lippmann among them, who argued that ordinary citizens were too ignorant and distracted to govern a complex modern society. Dewey concedes democracy’s failures but refuses to hand power to a class of experts. A public, he argues, forms when people recognize that they are affected by actions beyond their control, and democracy depends on that public finding itself, communicating, and staying engaged. He locates the trouble not in human incapacity but in a fractured social life that keeps citizens from seeing their shared stakes. It remains one of his most enduring political books. A free PDF and EPUB edition are available to download.