Justifications For Democracy
Democracy is a political system in which citizens have an equal say in making laws and other public decisions. This is one of the most popular political systems in the world.
In recent years anger at established politicians, economic dissatisfaction and anxieties about rapid social change have fuelled political upheaval in parts of the world. These movements, led by figures from the right and left of the political spectrum, are challenging many of the fundamental norms and institutions that underpin democracy.
The Global State of Democracy Indices (GSoDI), a set of 13 extant data sources, and the Varieties of Democracy dataset provide measures of the quality of democracy in all countries. These measure five principal attributes: representative government, fundamental rights, checks on the government, impartial administration and participatory engagement.
A key challenge is to make democracy work. It requires people to participate, but also to respect their political opponents. There can be no justification for using violence against political opponents. Nor can it be justified for a citizen to denounce another person as evil or illegitimate simply because they disagree with them about how to shape the society in which they live.
An important justification for democracy is that it offers a publicly egalitarian way to make collective decisions when there is significant disagreement and conflict of interests among persons about how to shape the societies they share. Democracy is the only method that can deal with this disagreement while still treating all persons as equals in face of their inherent biases and fallibility.
Other justifications for democracy focus on the value of the outcomes produced by democratic procedures compared to other methods of decision making. The most common of these is to argue that democratic procedures are best able to exploit the underlying cognitive diversity of large groups of citizens in assessing proposals for laws and policies.
In addition to its instrumental benefits, some theorists have argued that democracy cultivates better characters in its participants by forcing them to take others’ points of view into account. This requires them to engage in the kind of reflective reasoning that is needed if they are to arrive at correct judgments.
Normative democratic theory focuses on describing and explaining what democracy should be, rather than offering practical solutions for establishing it. Because of the difficulties of measuring democracy, much of this work has focused on cross-country comparisons. However, it is crucial to note that significant differences in the quality of democracy exist within individual countries. These are not just due to institutional differences, but also to cultural and economic factors. Identifying these differences is an important task for the future of democracy. It is necessary to establish a serious “price of admission” for participation in democracy, including demanding a commitment to invest in it both domestically and globally. This will help to ensure that democracy really is a way of life for all and not just an illusion for the few.
Democracy is a political system in which citizens have an equal say in making laws and other public decisions. This is one of the most popular political systems in the world. In recent years anger at established politicians, economic dissatisfaction and anxieties about rapid social change have fuelled political upheaval in parts of the world. These movements, led by figures from the right and left of the political spectrum, are challenging many of the fundamental norms and institutions that underpin democracy. The Global State of Democracy Indices (GSoDI), a set of 13 extant data sources, and the Varieties of Democracy dataset provide measures of the quality of democracy in all countries. These measure five principal attributes: representative government, fundamental rights, checks on the government, impartial administration and participatory engagement. A key challenge is to make democracy work. It requires people to participate, but also to respect their political opponents. There can be no justification for using violence against political opponents. Nor can it be justified for a citizen to denounce another person as evil or illegitimate simply because they disagree with them about how to shape the society in which they live. An important justification for democracy is that it offers a publicly egalitarian way to make collective decisions when there is significant disagreement and conflict of interests among persons about how to shape the societies they share. Democracy is the only method that can deal with this disagreement while still treating all persons as equals in face of their inherent biases and fallibility. Other justifications for democracy focus on the value of the outcomes produced by democratic procedures compared to other methods of decision making. The most common of these is to argue that democratic procedures are best able to exploit the underlying cognitive diversity of large groups of citizens in assessing proposals for laws and policies. In addition to its instrumental benefits, some theorists have argued that democracy cultivates better characters in its participants by forcing them to take others’ points of view into account. This requires them to engage in the kind of reflective reasoning that is needed if they are to arrive at correct judgments. Normative democratic theory focuses on describing and explaining what democracy should be, rather than offering practical solutions for establishing it. Because of the difficulties of measuring democracy, much of this work has focused on cross-country comparisons. However, it is crucial to note that significant differences in the quality of democracy exist within individual countries. These are not just due to institutional differences, but also to cultural and economic factors. Identifying these differences is an important task for the future of democracy. It is necessary to establish a serious “price of admission” for participation in democracy, including demanding a commitment to invest in it both domestically and globally. This will help to ensure that democracy really is a way of life for all and not just an illusion for the few.