If, when the people, being furnished with adequate information, held its deliberations, the citizens had no communication one with another, the grand total of the small differences would always give the general will, and the decision would always be good. But when factions arise … it may then be said that there are no longer as many votes as there are men, but only as many as there are associations.The BBC Today programme’s annual poll is a great opportunity to see how it views the democratic process from the position of conductor rather than critic. And like wacky French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (see right), Today is suspicious of party politics.

When this year’s result was heavily skewed towards abolishing anti-hunting legislation, presenter Ed Stourton commented that there were “suspicions that there was an organized campaign at work”. Today doesn’t want to encourage listeners to behave politically – in the sense of organizing themselves. It wants to relate to them as individuals. That way it remains uncompromised and neutral. But then freedom of association and freedom of communication intervene.

Of course, you can’t blame a radio show for failing to solve a problem that political theorists have grappled with for centuries. But you can see, perhaps, that the BBC is – ironically – in a poor position to fulfil one of it core missions – to sustain civil society. Civil society is about commercial, social and political organization and conflict. Sustaining that by attempting to remove oneself from the fray means the BBC can go so far, and no further. The information it offers its listeners and viewers is purely for themselves alone. When it ventures beyond ‘information’ – to invite opinions – it can only register sadness and disappointment that the audience has affilitiations and loyalties beyond those to the Beeb.