The criticism most frequently leveled against normative models of democracy is that of utopian irrelevance. “This may sound good in theory, but it is irrelevant to practice!” “Complex, modern societies,” the objection continues, “with their highly differentiated cultural, economic, social and artistic spheres of life, can never be and will never be organized along the lines suggested by a model of deliberative democracy.” Let me deal with this line of objection in several steps: