The Public and its Problems

In 1927, John Dewey, a famous American educationist and democrat published a book under the above title. In the book, he argued compellingly that for any democracy to thrive and live up to its normative goal of governing for the good and interest of the people, its public must be prepared to play a central role in defining it, and through constant and fearless interactions, interrogate their concerns.

Above all, Dewey urged the need to recognise that public interest is not about what interests the public. It is what is in their collective, communal interest and benefit. This distinction is important especially when democracy as a system of government is practised against the neoliberal market canvas that in logic, genuflects to the dictates of the market and privileges what the biggest aggregate of individuals are willing to pay for.

Whilest at one end of the spectrum public tends to be defined as an aggregate of individuals, thereby blurring its distinction from a m