4. Democracy and Political Obligation

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-95
Author(s):  
Robert Garner
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Ecological Democracy ◽  
Cosmopolitan Democracy ◽  
Participatory Theory ◽  
Theory Of Democracy

This chapter examines the claim that democracy is the ideal form of political obligation. It first traces the historical evolution of the term ‘democracy’ before discussing the debate between advocates of the protective theory and the participatory theory of democracy, asking whether it is possible to reconcile elitism with democracy and whether participatory democracy is politically realistic. The chapter proceeds to explain why democracy is viewed as the major grounding for political obligation, with emphasis on the problem of majority rule and what to do with the minority consequences of majoritarianism. It documents the contemporary malaise experienced by democracy and seeks to explain its perceived weaknesses as a form of rule. Finally, the chapter describes the new directions that democratic theory has taken in recent years, focusing on four theories: associative democracy, cosmopolitan democracy, deliberative democracy, and ecological democracy.

3. Democracy and Political Obligation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Garner
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Ecological Democracy ◽  
Cosmopolitan Democracy ◽  
Participatory Theory ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
The Ideal

This chapter examines the claim that democracy is the ideal form of political obligation. It first traces the historical evolution of the term ‘democracy’ before discussing the debate between advocates of the protective theory and the participatory theory of democracy, asking whether it is possible to reconcile elitism with democracy and whether participatory democracy is politically realistic. It then describes the new directions that democratic theory has taken in recent years, focusing on four theories: associative democracy, cosmopolitan democracy, deliberative democracy, and ecological democracy. It also explains why democracy is viewed as the major grounding for political obligation, with emphasis on the problem of majority rule and what to do with the minority consequences of majoritarianism.

4. Democracy

Politics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Ferdinand ◽  
Robert Garner ◽  
Stephanie Lawson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Participatory Theory ◽  
Theory Of Democracy

This chapter examines key aspects of democratic theory. It first defines what democracy means and traces the historical evolution of the term, from the time of the ancient Greeks to the French and American revolutions up to the nineteenth-century, when democracy began to take on more popular connotations in theory and practice. The chapter goes on to discuss the debate between advocates of the protective theory and the participatory theory of democracy. It also considers alleged problems with democracy — relating to majoritarianism, its impact on economic efficiency, and its relationship with desired outcomes — before concluding with an analysis of the new directions democratic theory has taken in recent years, including associative, deliberative, cosmopolitan, and ecological versions of democracy.

scholarly journals Reflecting on Fifty Years of Democratic Theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Pateman ◽  
Graham Smith
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
Basic Income

Carole Pateman reflects on her fifty years of scholarship in conversation with Graham Smith. The discussion focuses particular attention on Pateman’s work on participatory democracy and considers her contributions to debates on political obligation, feminism, basic income, and deliberative democracy.

The possibility of democratic socialism in Habermas

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843102098689
Author(s):  
Pedro A. Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Economic Organization ◽  
Democratic Socialism ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
Economic Regime ◽  
The Ideal

In keeping with the radical openness of his theory of democracy, Habermas avoided pre-determining the ideal mode of economic organization for his favoured model of deliberative democracy. Instead of attempting a full-blown derivation, in this article, I propose adapting the Rawlsian method of comparing different political–economic regimes as candidate applications of his theory of justice to Habermas’s theory of deliberative democracy. Although both theorists are seen as endorsing liberal democratic world views, from the perspective of political economy, the corollary of their conceptions of democracy would arguably veer elsewhere: in Rawls’s case, into the territory of property-owning democracy or democratic socialism, and in Habermas’s, into any political–economic regime which guarantees the real exercise of full political and discursive liberties against the background of legitimate lawmaking. The ultimate aim of this article is to discuss whether a concrete conception of democratic socialism, if any, is compatible with Habermas’s theory of deliberative democracy.

Deliberative Democracy in India

2018 ◽  
pp. 804-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramya Parthasarathy ◽  
Vijayendra Rao
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Participatory Development ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Indian Village ◽  
Panchayati Raj

This chapter traces the evolution of deliberative institutions in India, as well as the ways in which deliberative bodies influence, and are in influenced by, entrenched social inequality. The paper first unpacks the historical roots of Indian deliberation, emphasizing the ways in which religious traditions fostered a culture of debate and dialogue. The paper then explores the interplay between Western liberal philosophers, most notably Henry Maine, and Indian political thinkers, including Gandhi and Ambedkar, on participatory democracy in India. The discussion then highlights the continued dialogue between Indian and Western ideas in the push for greater participatory development. Finally, the chapter probes the current incarnation of state-sponsored deliberation in India—namely, village assemblies known as gram sabhas under the constitutionally mandated system of Indian village democracy or Panchayati Raj, and reviews the growing empirical scholarship about these village assemblies.

scholarly journals Contemporary theories of democracy

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Mladenovic
Keyword(s):  
Social Choice ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Social Choice Theory ◽  
Theoretical Framework

The aim of this paper is two-fold: first, to analyze several contemporary theories of democracy, and secondly, to propose a theoretical framework for further investigations based on analyzed theories. The following four theories will be analyzed: pluralism, social choice theory, deliberative democracy and participatory democracy.

Who Rules?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Heldman
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Policy Issue ◽  
Economic Democracy ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
Corporate Power ◽  
Consumer Activism ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Models Of Democracy

This chapter applies participatory, deliberative, and economic models of democracy to consumer activism to determine whether it is an effective check on overbearing corporate power. This chapter begins with an analysis of when and how corporate power has grown in the U.S. It concludes that consumer activism strengthens participatory democracy by increasing rates of citizen participation and fostering self-governance; improves deliberative democracy by encouraging public discussion of policy issue; and strengthens economic democracy by democratizing the corporate sphere. Compared to traditional forms of participation, consumer activism is easier to engage, but limited by its episodic, reactive nature.

Participatory Democracy Revisited

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Pateman
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Active Area ◽  
Democracy Promotion ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Form

Over the past two decades we have heard an historically unprecedented volume of talk about and praise of democracy, and many governmental, non-governmental, and international organizations have been engaged in democracy promotion. Democracy is a subject that crosses the boundaries in political science, and within my own field of political theory there has been a major revival of democratic theory. In political theory, argument about “democracy” is usually now qualified by one of an array of adjectives, which include cosmopolitan, agonistic, republican, and monitory. But the new form that has been by far the most successful is deliberative democracy. By 2007 John Dryzek could write that “deliberative democracy now constitutes the most active area of political theory in its entirety (not just democratic theory).” Not only is there an extremely large and rapidly growing literature, both theoretical and empirical, on deliberative democracy, but its influence has spread far outside universities.

Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Muirhead
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Median Voter ◽  
Moral Motivation ◽  
Positive Theory ◽  
Median Voter Theorem ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
Models Of Democracy

Anthony Downs’s Economic Theory of Democracy has been marginalized in normative democratic theory, notwithstanding its prominence in positive political theory. For normative theorists, the “paradox of voting” testifies to the reality of moral motivation in politics, a species of motivation foreign to Downs’s theory and central to the ideals of deliberative democracy that normative theorists developed in the 1980s and 1990s. The deliberative ideal displaced aggregative conceptions of democracy such as Downs’s model. The ensuing segmentation of normative democratic theories that assume moral motives (like deliberative democracy) and positive models of democracy that assume selfish motives (like Downs’s theory) leaves both without the resources to diagnose the persistence of ideological partisanship and polarization that beset modern democracies. Engaging Downs’s theoretical contributions, especially the median voter theorem, would constitute a salutary step toward a democratic theory that integrates normative and positive theory.

scholarly journals Deliberative Politics through Citizens’ Participatory Democracy: A model for Africa Political Processes

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1(S)) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Andrew Osehi Enaifoghe
Keyword(s):  
General Public ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Deliberative Politics ◽  
Majority Rules ◽  
Rule System

This article explores the present crisis of democratic governance or administration in Africa and examines the elective capability of deliberative majority rules system of democracy, in which the desire of the general public is educated by mindful, engaged citizen’s commitment and conversation. There are various questions needing answers; are the various and spellbound citizenry even equipped for consultation? How likely is amass thought of deliberation to achieve a very much contemplated choice? Wouldn’t it gather consultation reproduce a similar power lopsided characteristics blocking different sorts of talk? Deliberative models are displayed in principle and practical discourse, with contextual investigations including the furious populism of the Brexit vote, the ascent of deliberative components. What the contributing creators do share is the acknowledgement that the authenticity of appointive portrayal or representatives endures when individuals in the majority rule system of governments end up frustrated, disillusioned, and repelled. This study gives challenging and convincing thoughts regarding how to re-establish confidence in popular democratic governments by making them stronger and responsive. This study adopted a qualitative method of analysis.

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