American Studies Commons^™

Walter Lippmann, John Dewey, And American Political Democracy, Jesse B. Markay

MALS Final Projects, 1995-2019

Journalist Walter Lippmann and philosopher John Dewey engaged in an extended dialogue in the 1 920s regarding the condition and future of American democracy. In a series of books and essays the two intellectuals confronted issues that have been debated since the creation of the American republic and that remain contested today: how public opinion is formed; the capacity of individual citizens to render judgments concerning public affairs; the role that public opinion ought to play in formulating public policy; the possibility of establishing a truly democratic community. This paper argues that the issues Lippmann and Dewey addressed and the …