The public and its problems

Chapter 11: Transcriber’s Notes

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About This Book

The essays analyze how collective life and the state arise from overlapping associations, distinguish public concerns from private ones, and critique theories that see the state as either the highest ethical whole or mere coercive machinery. It traces how technological change and specialized expertise have dispersed public attention, weakening democratic control, and argues for reconstructing a deliberative public through improved communication, shared intelligence, and educational habits. The argument examines the functions of law, the selection and accountability of officials, tensions between experts and democratic participation, and the idea of a Great Community that relies on informed communication and scientific inquiry to coordinate social aims.

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.

The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.

Footnotes, originally at the bottoms of the pages on which they were referenced, have been collected, renumbered, and placed just before the Index.

Some page numbers in the Table of Contents are out of sequence, as they were in the original book.

The correct spelling of the name, “Ayers”, likely is “Ayres”.