Democracy means rule by “the people,” and has inspired political action for centuries and around the world. But the word also raises a question: Who are the people? And who gets to decide? Can a “people” arise and rule a country? What would it take for this to happen? Do the people have to elect a representative? Is that person representative?
Answering these questions is the work of rhetoric. Rhetoric is all about understanding how people—both individual persons and “the people”—can, and perhaps ought to be persuaded. How and why, do we change our minds?
Rhetoric’s questions, in other words, are the questions that democracy must answer.
