The Problematic Public

Lippmann, Dewey, and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century

Kristian Bjørkdahl

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780271096773
• eBook ISBN: 9780271097046
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Almost one hundred years have passed since Walter Lippmann and John Dewey published their famous reflections on the "problems of the public," but their thoughts remain surprisingly relevant as resources for thinking through our current crisis-plagued predicament. This book takes stock of the reception history of Lippmann's and Dewey's ideas about publics, communication, and political decision-making and shows how their ideas can inspire a way forward.

Lippmann and Dewey were only two of many twentieth-century thinkers trying to imagine how a modern industrial democracy might (or might not) come to pass, but despite that, the "Lippmann/Dewey debate" became a symbol of the two alleged options: an epistocracy, on the one hand, and grassroots participation, on the other. In this book, distinguished scholars from rhetoric, communication, sociology, and media and journalism studies reconsider this debate in order to assess its contemporary relevance for our time, which, in some respects, bears a striking resemblance to the 1920s. In this way, the book explains how and why Lippmann and Dewey are indispensable resources for anyone concerned with the future of democratic deliberation and decision-making.

In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include Nathan Crick, Robert Danisch, Steve Fuller, William Keith, Bruno Latour, John Durham Peters, Patricia Roberts-Miller, Michael Schudson, Anna Shechtman, Slavko Splichal, Lisa S. Villadsen, and Scott Welsh.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Lippmann, Dewey, and Democracy in a Hailstorm
• 1. A “Constituency of Intangibles”: Walter Lippmann’s Plea for a Better Democracy
• 2. The Lippmann/Lippmann Debate: What Role Do Social Movements Play in Democratic Politics?
• 3. From the Illusions of Democracy to the Realities of Its Appearances
• 4. Debates Conjured, Debates Forgotten
• 5. Societal Embedding of the Lippmann/Dewey Debate: From Opinion Expression to Opinion Polling and Mining
• 6. The Lippmann/Dewey Debate in the History of Twentieth-Century Progressivism
• 7. Propaedeutic Rhetorical Citizenship: Deweyan Impulses in Danish Community-Building
• 8. A Public and Its Solutions: Lippmann and Dewey Through the Prism of Norwegian Social Democracy
• 9. Democracy Now: Recovering the Political Pragmatism of Walter Lippmann and John Dewey
• 10. Democratic Deliberation, Identity, and Information
• 11. Rhetorical Sociology and the Management of Public Discourse
• List of Contributors
• Index