The success of the Civic Friendship Argument depends upon two claims. The first is that it is not possible, or at least it is much more difficult, for citizens to realise civic friendship in ways other than by upholding the doctrine of public reason. Some deny this claim, instead maintaining that forms of democracy that do not uphold the doctrine of public reason can fare equally as well in this regard (Billingham 2016; Caney 1995; Kogelmann 2017). The second is that citizens’ interest in realising civic friendship is sufficiently weighty so as to justify the kind of restraint imposed by the doctrine of public reason (Caney 1995).