The private citizen, Lippmann writes, feels like a deaf spectator in the back row of public affairs. He argues that no one can master every issue, distinguishes the insiders who act from the bystanders who watch, and proposes a modest role for public opinion: rallying, in moments of crisis, behind those who can restore workable rules.
A bracing 1925 challenge to democratic idealism that provoked John Dewey’s reply in The Public and Its Problems. Download the free EPUB.