Democracy as Associated Living

Dewey's conception of democracy is so expansive that most readers have struggled to take it seriously. Democracy, in Democracy and Education, is not exhausted by elections, legislatures, or the machinery of representative government. Democracy is a mode of associated living — a form of social organization in which every member of the community has the opportunity to contribute to the direction of shared life, to share in the activities that shape the conditions of common existence, and to grow through participation in collective inquiry. Democracy is education writ large, and education is democracy writ small. They are the same process viewed from different angles: the development of individual capacity through participation in the life of the community. This criterion generates a sharp distinction between the democratization of production (which AI has accomplished) and the democratization of inquiry (which AI has not).