Democracy When the People Are Thinking: Revitalizing Our Politics Through Public Deliberation

There is vote suppression, distortions of campaign finance, a largely uninformed public, vast sums of money spent to mislead and manipulate public opinion, efforts to spread fake news on social media, and a public that is increasingly likely to talk mostly to the like-minded, and consult mostly news sources it agrees with.

On this view, democracy is not about collective will formation but just a “competitive struggle for the people’s vote,”

There is a twofold problem: the conditions under which the “will of the people” develops and the mechanisms by which that will is expressed. Why is the first a problem? We live in a world of relentless advocacy, massive financing of the persuasion industry, the viral spread of fake news, social media discussions among the like-minded, and the press

Faith in the democratic process is in decline. If other systems deliver the goods, and provide prosperity and other results people care about, then the democratic method faces a serious challenge on the basis of the outcomes it produces.

As we will see, self-selected intense groups can achieve mass participation and even deliberation, but such strategies will violate political equality because they will be unrepresentative.

How much more powerful and consistent could we expect the influence of public opinion to become if it were built on really solid foundations—if it were the product of the entire society thinking about the issues and coming to a considered judgment?

Leaders who appear to be following opinion may in fact be creating it.53 Whether or not one considers this leadership or manipulation, it undermines claims to popular control.

Freedom of expression can be used to distort and manipulate public opinion as easily as it can be used to inform.

In our long journey of bringing power to the people—through mass primaries, referenda, recall elections, direct election of senators in the US, public opinion polls, and other forms of public consultation—we have empowered a public that generally lacks the information and attention that would be required for applying the value of deliberation in ma