How Democratic Professionals Can Contribute to Democracy: Reflections on John Boswell, How Citizens Encounter the Democratic State

Abstract This article applies a democratic professional lens to John Boswell's How Citizens Encounter the Democratic State: Weapons of the Meek at the Frontlines of Public Services (OUP, 2026). Democratic professionalism is defined as an approach that enables public services professionals to work more democratically with clients and other public service users. Its three principles—plurality of expertise, helping to shape the public realm and taking action—are illustrated in the article by examining how democratic professionalism has worked in the austere state, the neoliberal state and the carceral state. The three chosen cases are the Leeds City Council Family Valued programme, the response by local schools to the Grenfell Tower fire and the response by probation officers to privatisation proposals. The article concludes that more needs to be understood about the changes taking place in the different forms of the state and their implications for democracy.