What makes democracy possible? The ontological conditions for democratic rhetoric

If democracy is a way of life, as many American political theorists have argued, then it requires a set of rhetorical structures that foster constructive modes of association. This essay argues that rhetorical theory ought to consider the ontological conditions for democratic rhetoric. Democracy is made possible by the kinds of conditions for association in which deliberation or democratic decision-making is enacted. To realize political systems that are democratic, we need a social fabric capable of fostering constructive relationships across difference. That is a rhetorical project, made more or less likely by virtue of the systems that structure our socio-political interactions. We can rehabilitate democracy by creating the conditions for, and implementing, relational rhetorics. In the absence of relational rhetorics, democracy will wither. This view does not understand rhetoric as a series of strategies to be deployed by citizens but as the infrastructure for living democratic lives.