What can the field of public policy say about democracy? We study every policy sector imaginable, from agriculture policy to zero-waste policy. We study the so-called policy-making processes that produce sectoral policies. Through it all, we presume the normative value of democracy as the ideal form of government, but democracy itself remains largely off stage in much of our work. With democracy seemingly at yet another crisis point, I want to explore this paradoxical ideal that implicitly inspires so much of our work.