Is the universe of democracy, rhetoric, and public relations whole cloth or three separate galaxies?

• We present a theoretical development of and discussion of public relations, democracy, and rhetoric.
• We assess whether public relations scholars can assist in aiding the practice and society to achieve more democratic ends.
• We explore role rhetorical public relations plays in a deliberative democracy.
• We establish foundational premises of PR and democracy based on power, infrastructure, collective voices, and stewardship.
• We find that organizations can play a pivotal role in fostering environments that facilitate collective decision making.

Discussions of democracy, rhetoric, and public relations can conclude that these aspects of society and professional practice are contradictory paradoxes or partners for achieving harmony of collective interests. To that end, this paper briefly explores the rhetorical heritage as inseparable from democracy. It next examines, through the challenges of the public arena, ways that deliberative democracy can bring the three into partnership for the greater good. On this foundation, it features four premises of public relations and democracy based on power, infrastructure, private and public sphere, collective voices, language that co-manages meaning as social construction, and stewardship. As stewards of democracy, organizations can play a pivotal role in fostering environments, the infrastructures and collaborative processes, that allow and even facilitate collective decision making as well as blend the private sphere (individualism) and the public sphere (collectivism) so that self-interest can be satisfied and enjoyed by organizations and myriad publics as collective interests. By blending individual voices into collective voices and understanding the limits and pitfalls of language as culture, public relations can actually serve private interests by the co-management of meaning to make society better.