Abstract
This essay demonstrates that the management and contestability of power is central to Dewey's understanding of democracy and provides a middle ground between two opposite poles within democratic theory: Either the masses become the genuine danger to democratic governance (à la Lippmann) or elites are described as bent on controlling the masses (à la Wolin). Yet, the answer to managing the relationship between them and the demos is never forthcoming. I argue that Dewey's response to Lippmann for how we ought to conceive of the relationship between citizens and elites if power is not to become arbitrary is located within a larger framework that avoids the problematic distinction Wolin draws between the demos and representative government. For Dewey, the legitimacy of decision-making, and, indeed, the security of freedom, is determined not merely by our actual involvement, but the extent to which non-participation does not preclude the future contestability of power.
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Notes
Lippmann does believe that experts should be checked by a periodic plebiscite and that the public can serve this role. But it is more often than not that expertise alone is not sufficient for responding to political problems. This points to the need for a more robust account of deliberation than Lippmann can provide.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to Kiran Banerjee, Jack Turner, Jeffrey Stout, Eddie Glaude, Colin Koopman and the two anonymous reviewers.