Afterword —Lippmann and Dewey: The Varieties of Liberal Experience

Both Lippmann and Dewey sensed that democracy carried in its unformulated assumptions a conception of knowledge, and they disagreed on what those assumptions are and on what they should be. This initial difference reverberates through their political thinking. Lippmann’s and Dewey’s dialog in the twenties recapitulates some of the most vital questions about democracy: what is it that makes a “good citizen”, and is a “good man” de facto a “good citizen”? To what extent can democracy be predica...