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In his 1922 opus, Public Opinion, Lippmann poses a straightforward question: Can citizens achieve a basic knowledge of public affairs and then make reasonable choices about what to do? If the answer is no, then the entire democratic project is at best a folly.
Zac Gershberg • The Paradox of Democracy
When we talk about justice today, we almost always find ourselves talking about rights we believe are entrenched in nature and have been enshrined in our founding documents. This language reflects a liberal conception of human action and interaction, casting us as rational agents who reach agreements with one another through calculation and negotia
... See moreAlso, lacking civil liberties and property rights, representative democracy is left with nothing to represent except the will of the mob or—as it’s called these days—“activism.”
P.J. O'Rourke • A Cry from the Far Middle: Dispatches from a Divided Land
A social conservative by instinct and upbringing, he did more to alter the relationship between ordinary citizens and their government than any other American.
Jean Edward Smith • FDR
nytimes.com • Opinion | Michael Goldhaber, the Cassandra of the Internet Age - The New York Times
Democratic practices can emerge among feudal technologies. Administrators may feel rhetorical or social pressure to respect the values of community members in how they exert their otherwise absolute authority. Feudal networks can thereby exhibit forms of accountability that political scientist David Stasavage calls “early democracy,” resembling the
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