 If this account is correct, it suggests that a wide range of citizens can make fairly “accurate” voting decisions if two conditions hold: (1) there are political experts whose knowledge enables them to pinpoint who would be good electoral choices relative to specifiable citizens; and (2) these initially less-informed citizens are capable of identifying who are (some of) the genuine experts and who are not. An ability to recognize genuine expertise in political matters can play a significant role in promoting the kind of democratic success described above. As noted, though, it can be difficult for laypeople to decide which experts to trust. And as we saw in the last section, in our discussion of industrial influence on public belief, there are forces that work to undermine the functioning of democracy, and that often bring us away from this more optimistic picture. In the next section we will briefly discuss some related issues.