The deliberative model of democracy does not represent a counterfactual thought experiment. As I suggested at the beginning, I understand such a theory to be elucidating the already implicit principles and logic of existing democratic practices. Among the practices that such a theory of democracy can elucidate are the significance of deliberative bodies in democracies, the rationale of parliamentary opposition, the need for a free and independent media and sphere of public opinion, and the rationale for employing majority rule as a decision procedure. For this reason, the deliberative theory of democracy is not a theory in search of practice; rather it is a theory that claims to elucidate some aspects of the logic of existing democratic practices better than others. Theorists of social complexity should really reframe the question: the question is not whether discursive democracy can become the practice of complex societies but whether complex societies are still capable of democratic rule.