Comment Text:
Dear Chairman Rostin Behnam and Commissioners,
As a scholar at Columbia University, I must speak to the value of Predictit as an important and necessary political public sphere. Predictit creates a unique public sphere for concerned citizens to come together to discuss and interact on political issues. This public realm is the core of democracy.
Jürgen Habermas, the eminent social theorist and philosopher, maintained that the public sphere, a place for citizens to come together to communicate and interact, is the “locus of democracy.”
Predictit's Comments Forum, which consists of over one million comments and exchanges, allows for this amazing political public sphere to occur online. Citizens discuss, argue and assess political matters of general concern. While making $10 on a correct prediction is always rewarding, I would maintain that the real attraction of the site is the Comments Forum. Skills of critical reasoning are applied to this political public sphere where democratic affairs are the objects of discussion.
I can think of no other political public sphere where citizens from different political perspectives are given the opportunity to engage in rational and critical discussions about candidates and important political issues. It is quite an amazing site!
In the truest sense, Predictit's ability to generate communicative interaction legitimizes our democracy. Predictit is democracy in action!
Most sincerely,
Patricia Phillips
