Accusing a democracy of a tendency to prefer mediocrity in its elected rulers, and admitting its exposure to gusts of passion and its openness to folly, he pointed out in effect that popular government is educative as other modes of political regulation are not.
Dewey references De Tocqueville's observations on the educational aspects of popular government.
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The clear consciousness of a communal life, in all its implications, constitutes the idea of democracy.
For the very familiarity with the phenomena conceals their significance and blinds us to their relation to immediate political problems.
What is significant is that access to means of amusement has been rendered easy and cheap beyond anything known in the past.
There was no logic which rendered necessary the appeal to the individual as an independent and isolated being.