Gov 259: Identifications
"The hard choices that public officials have to make should be more acceptable, even to those who receive less than they deserve, if everyone's claims have been considered on the merits, rather than on the basis of the party's bargaining power."
Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson, Why Deliberative Democracy? This quote evokes the idea of the reason-giving requirement - that representatives' decisions should appeal to ideas that cannot reasonably be rejected. In cases where people disagree, the choices that are made should be made on the basis of considering everyone's claims and getting to the most justifiable result.
"As fundamental processes of governance escape the categories of the nation state, the traditional national resolutions of the key questions of democratic theory and practice are open to doubt."
David Held, "The transformation of political community: rethinking democracy in the context of globalization." Held describes how modern democratic theory and practice are constructed upon Westphalian foundations that, overall, privilege the ideals of the independent nation-state. However, globalization has disrupted the old model - it defies the old understanding of the nation-state system and requires a rethinking of political community.
"Democracy is a way of life that can be understood on three levels: as a membership organization, a mode of government, and a culture."
Elizabeth Anderson, The Imperative of Integration Anderson describes how segregation undermines democracy on all three levels by leading to a culture of inequality that inhibits competency for both citizens and elected officials. Segregation undermines democracy as a culture by promoting a lack of equal respect, attribution errors, and an unwillingness to consider others' problems; it undermines democracy as a mode of government by ensuring that political institutions are not equally accountable to all citizens; and it undermines democracy as a membership organization by promoting unequal political and social rights as well as a lack of accountability to others in one's community.
"From an egalitarian liberal standpoint, what matters are equal opportunities. If uniform rules create identical choice sets, then opportunities are equal."
Brian Barry, "The Strategy of Privatization," Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism. Barry argues that the state should be neutral towards everyone by embracing the politics of solidarity, whereby people reach an agreement on what rights everyone has, then make sure that everyone has them. Everyone thus gets equal choice-sets through state-provided rights and opportunities - what you do with your choice set is up to you.
"Put simply, freedom involves making choices amongst various options, and our societal culture not only provides these options, but also makes them meaningful to us."
Kymlicka, "Freedom and Culture," Multicultural Citizenship Kymlicka's argument is based upon a commitment to individual autonomy. People have the right to protect their cultures from decay - this is because it is only through having access to a societal culture that people have access to a range of meaningful options from which to choose.
"We can define deliberative democracy as a form of government in which free and equal citizens (and their representatives), justify decisions in a process in which they give one another reasons that are mutually acceptable and generally accessible, with the aim of reaching conclusions that are binding in the present on all citizens but open to challenge in the future."
Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson, Why Deliberative Democracy? This definition of deliberative democracy illustrates the four criteria for its realization: the reason-giving requirement, that it is accessible, that it is binding, that it is dynamic. Deliberative democracy is a solution to the problem of pluralism in that it does not assume agreement - just that the reasons given for deliberation must see others as free and equal.
"[O]rdinary people are perfectly willing to take up the task of citizenship within appropriate settings. Perhaps the problem lies not so much in each individual's failings but in a collective failure to organize our elections appropriately"
Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin, Deliberation Day Ackerman and Fishkin embrace the idea that deliberative polls and other experiments illustrate that ordinary people can participate in self-governance effectively. If their "Deliberation Day" was realized, they believe people would have no choice but to adapt to a more attentive and informed public.
"What distinguishes the capitalist economy from the simple exchange economy is separation of labor and capital, that is, the existence of a labor force without its own sufficient capital and therefore without a choice as to whether to put its labor in the market or not."
C.B. MacPherson, Democratic Theory MacPherson believes that the separation of labor and capital in the capitalist system means that laborers are coerced into participating in the capitalist system. The capitalist market gives coercive power to those who succeed in amassing capital, so competitive capitalism privileges those who have the coercion - there is less individual freedom.
"What neither its critics or its defenders have realized is that the notion of a 'classical theory of democracy' is a myth."
Carole Pateman, "Recent theories of democracy and the 'classical myth." Pateman argues that the 'classical theory of democracy' is a myth due to the fact that many of the so-called 'classical' theorists have differing views on democracy and the role of participation in democracy. She analyzes the contemporary theorists' criticism of the 'classical theory' and argues that, in addition to the diversity in opinion of such 'classical' theorists, the classical norms are important values toward which democracy should strive (despite practical disconnect between reality and theory).
"The crucial variable here is whether or not the institution is a participatory one and the central function of participation in Rousseau's theory is an educative one, using the term 'education' in the widest sense. Rousseau's ideal system is designed to develop responsible, individual social and political action through the effect of the participatory process."
Carole Pateman, "Recent theories of democracy and the 'classical myth." Rousseau's ideal system of democracy focused on the development of the individual through the educative effects of participation, especially since the participatory process is self-sustaining - the more you participate, the better you are at it. He felt that the value of participation is such that the individual learns that the public and private interests are linked, therefore he learns to be an effective citizen in both respects.
"It is doubtful that an extremely activist political culture can also be a heavily deliberative one."
Diana Mutz, Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory Democracy Mutz is describing the deliberation-participation paradox: Deliberation values tolerance and respect for differences of opinion, but people are more inclined to participate in discussion with like-minded individuals. Deliberation can therefore discourage political participation, especially for those who are averse to conflict.
"The kind of network that encourages an open and tolerant society is not necessarily the same kind that produces an enthusiastically participatory citizenry."
Diana Mutz, Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory Democracy People often participate more when they are part of homogeneous social networks that reinforce and encourage their ideas. Due to the deliberation-participation paradox, people are not as likely to participate in a network that is heterogeneous and demands compromise or raises the social costs of political engagement.
"In a fully democratic culture, public purposes must be shaped by 'mutual adaptation and conciliation,' to different individuals' interests. This cannot happen with 'society and intercourse.' Citizens can adjust their sense of the common purpose to others' interest only through discussion and cooperative engagement with other citizens from all walks of life on terms of equal regard."
Elizabeth Anderson, The Imperative of Integration This quote goes along with Anderson's point that political equality and social equality must be realized together. A democratic culture is a precursor to political equality.
"A more complete account of modes of political communication not only remedies exclusionary tendencies in deliberative practices, but more positively describes some specific ways that communicatively democratic processes can produce respect and trust, make possible understanding across structural and cultural difference, and motivate acceptance and action."
Iris Young, Inclusion and Democracy Young focuses on how practices of inclusion can, rather than substitute, enhance political discussion - rather than replacing argument, she aims to add to it. Greeting, rhetoric, and narrative are ways that respect and trust can be produced in deliberative practices such as political argument.
"All intellectual superiority is the fruit of active effort. Enterprise, the desire to keep moving, to be trying and accomplishing new things for our own benefit or that of others, is the parent even of speculate, and much more of practical, talent"
J.S. Mill, "That the Ideally Best Form of Government Is Representative Government," Considerations on Representative Government This quote evokes the overall message from Mill's argument, which is that passivity does not good government make. Government should aim to not only protect people's current moral, intellectual, and active faculties but also to enhance them in the future.
"We can put the same point in a slightly different way. Voting is a way of deciding among important social options. Those who urge one option or the other will put forward serious justificatory arguments designed to show, first, that the stakes in the decision are very high, and secondly, why it is important that those stakes should play out in a particular way."
Jeremy Waldron, "Participation: The Right of Rights" Waldron illustrates the point that since the supposed stakes of participation are so high, it follows that the justification of the right to vote be a strong and robust one. He is criticizing the expressivist justification, the idea that the right to vote is such so that people can enjoy the indulgence of expressing themselves - the stakes are surely higher than that.
"The specification of social goals-to which participatory rights are supposed (on his account) to be instrumental-is not only intensely controversial in modern society; it is of course the primary subject-matter of the very politics that participatory rights are supposed to constitute. Those who claim participatory rights are demanding the right to participate in resolving controversies of this sort."
Jeremy Waldron, "Participation: The Right of Rights" Waldron states that the controversial nature of the specification of social goals illustrates an important point: that establishing the specific goals of society is incredibly difficult. There is thus a problem with the instrumentalist defense of participation because it specifies social goals that participation is supposed to realize through its instrumentation - even though individuals are not necessarily capable of defining such broad social goals themselves and in harmony, and there is a question as to whether or not such goals can even exist.
"Majoritarianism is not just an effective decision-procedure, it is a respectful one"
Jeremy Waldron, The Dignity of Legislation Waldron argues that majoritarianism is the decision-making rule that best realizes human dignity by respecting people in two ways: it takes seriously the reality of difference and it treats everyone equally. It treats everyone equally in that everyone has the right to vote and each vote has equal weight.
"The democratic method is that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people's vote."
Joseph Schumpeter, "The Classical Doctrine of Democracy," Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy This is Schumpeter's "contemporary theory of democracy," which is valuable to him due to its emphasis on free competition for a free vote, which distinguishes democracy from other forms of governance that may still realize the will and good of the people, despite being undemocratic. But the focus on competition in Schumpeter's contemporary theory of democracy stems from his lack of faith in the capacity of individuals to be democratic citizens - a lack of faith in the ability of ordinary people to participate effectively.
"No more than any other political method does democracy always produce the same results or promote the same interests or ideals. Rational allegiance to it thus presupposes not only a schema of hyper-rational values but also certain states of society in which democracy can be expected to work in ways we approve."
Joseph Schumpeter, "The Setting of the Problem," Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy Democracy is not an ideal in its own right; it produces different results and promotes different ideals/interests depending on what set of values underlies its definition and depending on the historical circumstances in which it is realized. Schumpeter believes that democracy is not an end in itself and he thus strives to come up with a contemporary theory of democracy that will rationally replace the so-called classical doctrine of democracy by being a more practical means of distinguishing democracy from other forms of governance.
"Political emancipation certainly represents a great progress. It is not, indeed, the final form of human emancipation, but it is the final form of human emancipation within the framework of the prevailing social order. It goes without saying that we are speaking here of real, practical emancipation."
Karl Marx, "On the Jewish Question" Political emancipation entails the realization of the equal status of individuals in relation to the state - people are equal before the law regardless of private religion, property or other aspect. Marx concludes that while individuals can be "spiritually" and "politically" free in a secular state, they can still be bound to material constraints on freedom by economic inequality.
"The theoretical defense of group representation is not complete without some discussion of institutions, for if there is no morally acceptable scheme of institutions that can embody the normative ideal, it means the normative argument can function only as a critique of existing practice, not as an aid to the creative rethinking of our political possibilities."
Melissa Williams, "The Institutions of Fair Representation," Voice, Trust, and Memory Williams aims to explore the different ways that institutions can embody three different aspects of representation: individual equality, individual autonomy, and fair group representation.
"The scope of government must be limited. Its major function must be to protect our freedom both from the enemies outside our gates and from our fellow citizens: to preserve law and order, to enforce private contracts, to foster competitive markets."
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom Friedman views voluntary cooperation and private enterprise as checks to the power of government and therefore guarantors of freedom of speech, religion, and thought. Insofar as it allows individual freedom and checks on government power, Friedman believes that a capitalist system best promotes freedom overall.
"There is not such basic right, because one does not have a basic moral right to exercise significant power over the lives of other people, to direct how they shall live their lives. Rights to power over the lives of others always involve an element of stewardship."
Richard Arneson, "Democracy Is Not Intrinsically Just" Arneson understands democracy and justice to be two distinct political values - in a democracy, people thus do not intrinsically have the just right to a democratic say (a right to political power and thus control over the lives of others). Democracy is just only when it can produce outcomes that are just, according to standards of justice that are independent of the standards that define the democratic ideal.
"The democratic process is itself a form of justice: It is a just procedure for arriving at collective decisions."
Robert Dahl, "Process and Substance," Democracy and Its Critics Dahl argues that democracy is at least one aspect of a just social order in that it is a fair process and produces at least some fair outcomes. Democracy is just because it distributes authority fairly and it is premised upon the presumption of personal autonomy (that each person is presumed to be the best judge of his or her own interests and no other person has more incentive to seek out your best interests than you do) combined with the principle of equal consideration of interests (that no person's interests are privileged in collective decision-making).
"Much of the conflict that you suppose to exist between process and substance is not truly a conflict between substantive justice or right and the democratic process. On the contrary, it reflects a failure of the democratic process."
Robert Dahl, "Process and Substance," Democracy and Its Critics Dahl argues that self-government is the most fundamental, inalienable right - from which other rights will be derived. So, the solution to conflict between process and substance is not to impose limits on the democratic process but to improve the process to make it more truly democratic.