This thesis presents an empirical analysis and normative theoretical evaluation of Reddit, a social news website, focusing on its coverage of the 2012 US presidential election campaign. It explores the site's structural features and organization, and evaluates its coverage by standards derived from three different ideal concepts of democracy. In all three theoretical settings, the study finds Reddit's performance lacking, while also identifying praiseworthy aspects of the site's operation. The thesis concludes by putting the mostly disappointing results into broader historical and technological context, and by proposing an alternative way to harness Reddit's precarious democratic potential.