When commentators worry about the state of our democracy, they usually worry about voting behaviour: whether citizens vote at all, and whether they vote for parties which promote division and conflict rather than searching for common ground. John Boswell’s book, How Citizens Encounter the Democratic State: Weapons of the Meek at the Frontlines of Public Services, starts from the insight that citizens mainly encounter the state in places other than the polling booth: when they seek health care or education, report a crime to the police or indeed are suspected of breaking the law. In his study of these encounters, Boswell finds the sources of democratic disaffection in services put under stress by austerity, and shows the limitations and even counter-productiveness of the coping mechanisms that people adopt (the ‘weapons of the meek’). In this symposium, Boswell and his interlocutors reflect on what we can learn about our democracy, and how to improve it, when we focus on quotidian interactions with state agencies.