The Public and Its Problems is John Dewey’s major political-philosophical analysis of democracy, the nature of the public, and the modern state. Responding in part to Walter Lippmann’s skepticism about mass democracy, Dewey argues that a public forms whenever the indirect consequences of associated action become so extensive and enduring that they need to be regulated. The state is the institutionalization of that public, but its legitimacy depends on experimental inquiry, effective communication, education, and the reconstruction of social conditions so that citizens can identify shared problems and participate intelligently in their solution. Dewey diagnoses how industrialization, large-scale organization, and mass media fragment the public and render it “eclipsed,” while insisting that democracy is not merely a form of government but a way of life rooted in habits of communication and cooperative inquiry.

At a Glance

Quick Facts

Author: John Dewey
Composed: 1926–1927
Language: English
Status: original survives

Key Arguments

•The public is not a fixed, pre-given entity (such as a nation or class) but arises functionally and contingently wherever the indirect consequences of private or group actions are perceived and require organized regulation.
•The state is the political organization of the public, formed to care for and regulate the indirect consequences of associated action; its authority is justified instrumentally by its success in managing these consequences, not by metaphysical social-contract doctrines.
•Modern conditions—industrialization, large-scale economic organization, urbanization, and mass media—have fragmented and obscured the public, producing an “eclipse” of the public rather than its disappearance, and thereby weakening democratic control.
•Democracy is best understood not primarily as a set of constitutional forms but as a way of life grounded in communication, education, and experimental inquiry; democratic institutions should be continually reconstructed to enhance the capacities of individuals to participate in common problem-solving.
•Effective communication, public discussion, and education are the central means by which a scattered, inchoate public can identify itself, clarify its interests, and transform into an organized and authoritative agent of collective action.

Historical Significance

Over time, The Public and Its Problems has become a canonical text in pragmatist political theory and democratic thought. It significantly influenced mid-20th‑century discussions of participatory democracy, public education, and the role of communication in politics, and it prefigured later theories of the public sphere and deliberative democracy (e.g., Jürgen Habermas). The book has been central to communitarian, civic republican, and radical democratic appropriations of Dewey, shaping debates about civil society, social capital, community organizing, and the relationship between expertise and popular control. In recent decades it has been revisited in light of globalization, networked communication, and the crisis of democratic publics in mass and digital media environments.

Famous Passages

The “eclipse of the public”(Commonly cited from Chapter 4 (“Eclipse of the Public”), early sections where Dewey describes how the public has become “lost” amid large-scale, indirect consequences.)

Democracy as a way of life(Discussed most explicitly in Chapter 5 (“Search for the Great Community”), especially where Dewey claims that democracy is a “way of life controlled by a working faith in the possibilities of human nature.”)

The public as defined by indirect consequences(Chapter 1 (“Search for the Public”), in Dewey’s definition of a public as those affected by the indirect consequences of transactions and who seek their regulation.)

The Great Community and the Great Society(Chapter 5 (“Search for the Great Community”), in Dewey’s contrast between a technologically interconnected “Great Society” and the more fully democratic “Great Community.”)

Key Terms

Public: For Dewey, the public consists of those persons who are indirectly and extensively affected by the consequences of others’ actions and who therefore have an interest in regulating those consequences.

Indirect Consequences: Effects of associated action that go beyond the immediate parties involved, extending over time and space, and thereby creating public concerns that may require political regulation.

The State: The organized, institutional embodiment of the public, formed to care for and regulate the indirect consequences of social actions through law, administration, and collective decision‑making.

Eclipse of the Public: Dewey’s diagnosis that modern industrial and technological conditions have scattered, obscured, and disorganized the public, making it difficult for citizens to recognize themselves as a collective agent.

Great Community: Dewey’s ideal of a democratic community in which communication is rich, reciprocal, and educative, enabling informed participation, shared inquiry, and intelligent control over common problems.

1. Introduction

The Public and Its Problems (1927) is John Dewey’s most sustained work of political philosophy and a central statement of American pragmatist democracy. Written in the aftermath of World War I and during intense debate about mass democracy, propaganda, and expertise, the book examines how a public forms, how it becomes institutionalized as the state, and under what conditions democracy can function effectively in modern, large‑scale societies.

Dewey approaches these issues not by offering a constitutional blueprint, but by asking when and how people come to recognize themselves as sharing problems that require collective regulation. He redefines democracy as an experimental and communicative way of life, rather than merely a set of electoral procedures, and argues that industrialization and mass media have produced an “eclipse of the public” that threatens democratic control.

The book is often read in dialogue with Walter Lippmann’s skeptical account of public opinion and has been seen as a precursor to later theories of the public sphere and deliberative democracy. Its influence extends across political theory, communication studies, and education, where Dewey’s insistence on inquiry, participation, and social learning continues to frame debates about the prospects and limits of democratic life in complex societies.

2. Historical Context and Intellectual Background

Progressive Era and Postwar Disillusionment

Dewey wrote The Public and Its Problems at the end of the Progressive Era, when optimism about expert‑led reform coexisted with disappointment over wartime propaganda, corporate power, and political corruption. The First World War and the rise of mass advertising raised doubts about whether citizens could be informed participants in public life.

Context	Relevance to the book
Progressive reform movements	Supplied examples of experimental social policy and civic activism.
Wartime propaganda and censorship	Fueled concerns about manipulation of public opinion.
Corporate consolidation and urbanization	Exemplified the indirect, large‑scale consequences central to Dewey’s definition of the public.

Dewey’s pragmatism shaped his methodological commitments. He drew on experimental psychology, sociology, and emerging communication studies to reconceive politics as a process of inquiry into shared problems. Proponents of this reading emphasize how his account of democracy parallels his instrumental view of scientific method.

Debate with Walter Lippmann

A key intellectual backdrop is Dewey’s exchange with journalist and theorist Walter Lippmann. Lippmann argued that ordinary citizens, faced with complex, mediated realities, could not form reliable public opinions and that decision‑making should be largely entrusted to experts. Dewey agreed about the complexity but insisted that improved communication, education, and local associational life could reconstruct a capable public. Commentators disagree over how far Dewey successfully answers Lippmann’s skepticism.

Relation to Earlier Political Theory

Dewey’s functional account of the state engages critically with social contract and natural rights traditions. He neither fully accepts liberal individualism nor embraces collectivist or Marxist doctrines, instead seeking a reconstructive path that treats the state as an evolving instrument arising from changing patterns of associated life.

3. Author and Composition

Dewey’s Intellectual Position

By the mid‑1920s, John Dewey (1859–1952) was a leading American philosopher and public intellectual, known for his work in pragmatism, education, and social reform. The Public and Its Problems consolidates themes from his earlier writings on democracy, experience, and inquiry, while responding to contemporary political challenges.

Occasion and Lectures

The book grew out of the Storrs Lectures on Jurisprudence delivered at Yale University in 1926. Dewey adapted these lectures into a more expansive treatise, published in 1927 by Henry Holt and Company. Scholars note that the lecture origin helps explain the book’s argumentative, occasionally rhetorical style and its focus on the legal‑political dimensions of the state.

Stage	Approximate Date	Feature
Storrs Lectures delivered	1926	Focus on jurisprudence and the state.
Manuscript development	1926–1927	Expansion of sections on the public and democracy.
First publication	1927	Book form, New York, Henry Holt.

Biographical and Activist Context

Dewey’s long engagement with progressive education, labor issues, and civil liberties informed the composition. His association with figures such as Jane Addams—to whose memory the book is dedicated—links the work to settlement‑house reform, neighborhood democracy, and social experimentation.

Commentators differ on how directly the book reflects Dewey’s specific political involvements (for instance, in teacher unionism or anti‑war activism). Some read it as a general philosophical synthesis; others see it as a theoretical crystallization of his practical reform experiences, especially in schools and voluntary associations.

4. Structure and Organization of the Work

The Public and Its Problems is organized into six chapters, each pursuing a distinct step in Dewey’s argument about the public, the state, and democracy.

Chapter	Focus	Main Thematic Task
1. “Search for the Public”	Clarifies what counts as a public	Distinguishes public from private; introduces indirect consequences.
2. “Discovery of the State”	Explains emergence of the state	Treats the state as institutional embodiment of the public.
3. “The Democratic State”	Characterizes democratic forms of state	Examines participation, consent, and the role of expertise.
4. “Eclipse of the Public”	Diagnoses contemporary failures	Describes how modern conditions obscure and fragment the public.
5. “Search for the Great Community”	Sketches a more adequate democratic community	Develops the idea of democracy as a communicative way of life.
6. “The Problem of Method”	Addresses how to reform and inquire	Argues for experimental method in politics and criticism of dogma.

Logical Progression

The structure moves from conceptual clarification (chapters 1–2) to normative and diagnostic assessment (chapters 3–4), and then to reconstructive proposals and methodological reflections (chapters 5–6). Commentators note that the middle chapters are more analytical, while the last two are more programmatic and aspirational.

Some interpreters highlight the continuity between the chapters as an extended inquiry: identifying a problem (the elusive public), tracing its institutional forms (the state), diagnosing obstacles (eclipse), and proposing a method for ongoing reconstruction. Others suggest the work remains somewhat episodic, with the methodological discussion in the final chapter only loosely tied to the earlier analysis.

5. Central Arguments and Key Concepts

The Public and Indirect Consequences

A central claim is Dewey’s functional definition of the public. He argues that a public arises whenever the indirect consequences of private or group actions become so extensive and enduring that those affected seek to regulate them. The private realm concerns immediate participants; the public involves bystanders and longer‑term effects.

“The public consists of all those who are affected by the indirect consequences of transactions to such an extent that it is deemed necessary to have those consequences systematically cared for.”

— John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems

The State as Organized Public

From this, Dewey defines the state as the organized, institutional response to public needs: law, administration, and coercive authority are instruments for managing indirect consequences. He rejects both metaphysical social contracts and purely coercive conceptions, portraying the state as historically contingent and revisable.

Democracy as a Way of Life

Dewey’s account of democracy emphasizes habits of communication, shared inquiry, and participation. A democratic state, in his view, is one in which affected publics can effectively identify problems, access information, deliberate, and influence decisions. This leads to the ideal of the Great Community, where communication is sufficiently rich and reciprocal to support intelligent collective action.

Eclipse of the Public and the Problem of Method

He contends that industrialization, large organizations, and mass media have produced an eclipse of the public, scattering and disorganizing citizens. The proposed remedy is not a fixed institutional design but an experimental method in politics: continuous problem‑solving guided by evidence, feedback, and revision.

Scholars differ on whether this experimental, communication‑centered approach adequately addresses structural power, inequality, and conflict, or whether it underestimates non‑discursive dimensions of political struggle.

6. Legacy and Historical Significance

Influence on Democratic and Pragmatist Theory

Over time, The Public and Its Problems has been widely regarded as a foundational text in pragmatist political theory. It has shaped discussions of participatory democracy, civic education, and the role of communication in politics. Mid‑20th‑century reformers and theorists of community organizing drew on Dewey’s emphasis on local associations and experimental reform.

Later, scholars such as Jürgen Habermas and Seyla Benhabib engaged Dewey’s ideas in relation to theories of the public sphere and deliberative democracy, sometimes highlighting convergences in the emphasis on communication, sometimes stressing Dewey’s distinctive experimentalism and focus on social learning.

Contemporary Reinterpretations

Since the late 20th century, the book has been revisited in light of globalization, neoliberalism, and digital media. Proponents of radical democracy, communitarianism, and civic republicanism have variously appropriated Dewey’s conception of the public and the Great Community to argue for more participatory forms of governance, stronger civil society, or renewed civic virtues.

At the same time, critical theorists, feminist and race scholars, and agonistic democrats question whether Dewey’s framework sufficiently grapples with deep structural inequalities, identity‑based exclusions, and persistent conflicts of value.

Ongoing Relevance

The work is frequently cited in debates about the crisis of public opinion, the power of algorithmic and mass media, and the future of democratic citizenship. Its vocabulary of public, state, eclipse, and Great Community continues to provide a conceptual toolkit for analyzing how publics form—or fail to form—under changing technological and economic conditions, even as interpreters disagree about how directly Dewey’s proposals can be applied to contemporary political realities.

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BibTeX

@online{philopedia_the_public_and_its_problems,
  title = {the-public-and-its-problems},
  author = {Philopedia},
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://philopedia.com/works/the-public-and-its-problems/},
  urldate = {December 11, 2025}
}