Democracy

Question 1

The concept of democracy

Answer 1

• The concept of democracy refers to a collective decision-making procedure.
• Democracy is justified by reference to certain values: equality, freedom/autonomy, and fairness.
• Democracy offers a means for securing legitimate authority - it acts as a procedure to secure consent and a fair procedure for distributing the burdens and benefits of social cooperation.

Question 2

The instrumental value of democracy(preference satisfaction)

Answer 2

1. What makes for a good human life depends upon whether a person satisfies their most important preferences.
2. The purpose of government is to enable people to live good lives.
3. However, it is impossible and undesirable to satisfy all preferences.
4. Democracy is the best means to satisfy the greatest number of morally permissible individual preferences within a political community.

Question 3

Strategic instrumental value of democracy

Answer 3

• The strategic instrumentalist account claims that the value of democracy lies in its usefulness as a means of achieving some end.

• Achieving justice.
• Securing legitimacy.
• Protecting rights.
• ‘no substantial famine has ever occurred in any independent country with a democratic form of government and a relatively free press’
• government’s role is to maximise happiness and minimise suffering.
• Representative democracy incentivises rulers to promote everyone’s happiness because rulers are accountable to their electorates.

Question 4

Epistemic instrumental account

Answer 4

•• Epistemology is the study of knowledge

This account of the value of democracy holds that democracy is epistemically useful for discovering the common good or uncovering the truth about something.

• This is because individuals are the best judges of what makes them happy and democracy.
• Thus, the best way to find out how to maximise happiness is to ask everyone.
• Collective decision-making is more likely to uncover truth than individual decision-making.

Question 5

Doubting the instrumental credentials of democracy

Answer 5

• Instrumental accounts of the value of democracy hold that democracy is valuable if secures valuable ends. Conversely, that means that if the evidence shows that it is not the best means of securing those ends then we ought not choose democracy.
• Plato argued that the general population is very bad at decision-making. In place of democracy he argues for rule by philosopher kings.

Question 6

The intrinsic value of democracy

Answer 6

The equal moral status of citizens is reflected in public rules and procedures. Each citizen has equal rights and is treated impartially.

Democratic procedures recognise the equal status of citizens and so give equal weight and impartial consideration to their claims, discriminating solely on morally relevant grounds. In this way, it is fair.

Citizens have a right to form and choose the laws that govern them, thus each individual’s status as a self-governing moral agent is respected (recall the lecture on philosophical anarchism).

Question 7

The constitutive value of democracy

Answer 7

participating in a democracy is constitutive of a good life.

participating as an equal is one of the elements that makes up a good life.

The good of participating is distinct from the good of the decision reached as a result of participating.

Thus, democracy has an intrinsically good quality.

Question 8

The role of other concepts

Answer 8

The concept of democracy makes reference to other concepts in its definition (freedom, equality, etc.).

Depending upon how we think those other concepts ought to be defined, and why they are valuable, leads to different visions of democracy.

The concepts in this module are interconnected.

Question 9

Downsides to democracy

Answer 9

Democracy can suffer from ‘the tyranny of the majority’ and the problem of persistent minorities.

Some areas of our lives ought to be off-limits to democratic decision-making.

A society can be democratic without being just.