The Public and Its Problems · Chapter
IV: The Eclipse of the Public explained
Dewey examines the modern crisis of democracy, arguing that the public has become amorphous and bewildered due to the vast, indirect consequences of industrial and technological forces.
What happens
Dewey examines the modern crisis of democracy, arguing that the public has become amorphous and bewildered due to the vast, indirect consequences of industrial and technological forces. He contrasts the original local, community-based democracy of America with the current complex, nationalized society where citizens feel powerless and disconnected from government. The chapter identifies the 'eclipse of the public' as a key problem, where indirect consequences are suffered but not perceived or traced to their origins, preventing the formation of an organized public.
Themes in this chapter
The Eclipse of the Public
Central theme: the public is lost, bewildered, and uncertain of its own existence due to the scale and complexity of modern society.
The Great Society vs. The Great Community
The local face-to-face community has been invaded by vast, remote forces, creating an unintegrated 'great society' that has not yet become a great community.
Communication and Democracy
Implicit in the discussion of how indirect consequences are suffered but not perceived or communicated, preventing public organization.
Characters to notice
- Carlyle
Quoted for his insight that the printing press makes democracy inevitable, linking technology to political form.
Key passages
“In spite of attained integration, or rather perhaps because of its nature, the Public seems to be lost; it is certainly bewildered.”
Even though society has become more interconnected, this very integration has caused the public to become confused and unable to find itself.
Dewey states the core problem of the chapter: the public's eclipse despite societal consolidation.
“The local face-to-face community has been invaded by forces so vast, so remote in initiation, so far-reaching in scope and so complexly indirect in operation, that they are, from the standpoint of the members of local social units, unknown.”
Local communities are now affected by huge, distant, and complex forces that local people cannot see or understand.
Explains why the public cannot organize: the origins of consequences are invisible to those who suffer them.
“An inchoate public is capable of organization only when indirect consequences are perceived, and when it is possible to project agencies which order their occurrence.”
A disorganized public can only become organized if people become aware of the indirect effects of actions and can create institutions to manage them.
Dewey's key condition for the formation of a public: perception of indirect consequences.