The variety of effects of publicity on the nature of the deliberation process is an understudied matter. We have already looked at some considerations, asking ourselves whether publicity substitutes public-interest-oriented to self-regarding arguments, and whether it leads to a shift from bargaining to deliberation. Here, leaving Elster’s account aside for a moment, we go on with examining other dimensions of what can be referred to—in an admittedly vague manner—as the quality of the debate. We start with the possibility that publicity risks modifying the nature of a discussion in ways that are not desirable. One such negative side-effect, as identified by James Madison in 1787 in the case of the American Constitutional Convention, is the following: