John Dewey's concept of democracy has often been dismissed as "liberal" and as being unable to account for pluralism (Talisse 2007). I argue that this is a misconception which can be corrected if we analyze Dewey's understanding of democracy in its historical context. Following this approach, we find elements of a democratic conception in Dewey's thought that are profoundly radical and that can be read along the lines of an anarchist account of radical democracy as recently developed by David Graeber (2013).