Democracy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) - Democr...

8/30/13 Democracy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
plato.stanford.edu/entries/democracy/ 1/28
Open access to the SEP is made possible by a world-wide funding initiative.
Please Read How You Can Help Keep the Encyclopedia Free
Democracy
First published Thu Jul 27, 2006
Normative democratic theory deals with the moral foundations of democracy and
democratic institutions. It is distinct from descriptive and explanatory democratic
theory. It does not offer in the first instance a scientific study of those societies that
are called democratic. It aims to provide an account of when and why democracy is
morally desirable as well as moral principles for guiding the design of democratic
institutions. Of course, normative democratic theory is inherently interdisciplinary and
must call on the results of political science, sociology and economics in order to give
this kind of concrete guidance.
This brief outline of normative democratic theory focuses attention on four distinct
issues in recent work. First, it outlines some different approaches to the question of
why democracy is morally desirable at all. Second, it explores the question of what it is
reasonable to expect from citizens in large democratic societies. This issue is central
to the evaluation of normative democratic theories as we will see. A large body of
opinion has it that most classical normative democratic theory is incompatible with
what we can reasonably expect from citizens. It also discusses blueprints of democratic
institutions for dealing with issues that arise from a conception of citizenship. Third, it
surveys different accounts of the proper characterization of equality in the processes of
representation. These last two parts display the interdisciplinary nature of normative
democratic theory. Fourth, it discusses the issue of whether and when democratic
institutions have authority and it discusses different conceptions of the limits of
democratic authority.
1. Democracy Defined
2. The Justification of Democracy
2.1 Instrumentalism
2.2 Non-instrumental Values
3. The Problem of Democratic Citizenship
3.1 Some Solutions Offered for the Problem of Democratic Citizenship
3.2 The Self-Interest Assumption
3.3 The Role of Citizenship as Choosers of Aims
4. Legislative Representation

8/30/13 Democracy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
plato.stanford.edu/entries/democracy/ 2/28
5. The Authority of Democracy
5.1 Instrumentalist Conceptions of Democratic Authority
5.2 Democratic Consent Theories of Authority
5.3 Limits to the Authority of Democracy
Bibliography
Other Internet Resources
Related Entries
1. Democracy Defined
To fix ideas, the term “democracy,” as I will use it in this article, refers very generally
to a method of group decision making characterized by a kind of equality among the
participants at an essential stage of the collective decision making. Four aspects of
this definition should be noted. First, democracy concerns collective decision making,