The Idea of Democracy [Paperback]

The essays in this book address a variety of foundational questions about democracy.The essays in this book address a variety of foundational questions about democracy: How effective is it? How stable can it be in a pluralist society? Does it deserve its current popularity? Can it successfully guide a socialist society?The essays in this book address a variety of foundational questions about democracy: How effective is it? How stable can it be in a pluralist society? Does it deserve its current popularity? Can it successfully guide a socialist society?In the wake of the recent expansion of democratic forms of government around the world, political theorists have begun to rethink the nature and justification of this form of government. The essays in this book address a variety of foundational questions about democracy: How effective is it? How stable can it be in a pluralist society? Does it deserve its current popularity? Can it successfully guide a socialist society?Introduction; Part I. The Point of Democracy: 1. Tocqueville and democracy Stephen Holmes; 1a. Tocqueville, commerce and democracy Debra Satz; 2. Making truth safe for democracy David Estlund; 2a. Could political truth be a hazard for democracy? David Copp; 3. Democratic rights at national and workplace levels Richard J. Arneson; 3a. Justified to whom? Robert Sugden; Part II. Democracy and Preferences: 4. Public choice versus democracy Russell Hardin; 4a. Social choice and democracy Thomas Christiano; 5. Democracy and shifting preferences Cass R. Sunstein; 5a. Must preferences be respected in a democracy? John Ferejohn; Part III. Democracy and Public Reason: 6. The domain of the political and overlapping consensus John Rawls; 6a. Moral pluralism and political consensus Joshua Cohen; 6b. The moral commitments of liberalism Jean Hampton; 7. Constituting democracy David Gauthier; 7a. On contractarian constitutional democracy Christopher W. Morris; Part IV. Democracy and Economics: 8. The possibility ofl³