What is democracy

1
What is democracy?

• Presentation of questions, ideas
• Discussion

2
Democracy three principles

• Wide dispersal of power
• Allow for aggregation of power sufficient for the
  specific sets of the duties, obligations being
  addressed (err on the side of a narrow set of
  duties, obligations) but with a check
  sufficient to counter that particular aggregation
  of power when necessary
• Open

3
Democracy three definitions

• Democracy where government actualizes the will
  of the people
• Democracy where the social system actualizes
  the will of the people
• Modest democracy protection of individual
  rights and minority rights without undue
  frustration of the will of the people
• The will of the people
• Rousseaus General Will?
• Lockean aggregation and summation of individual
  wills? (social welfare economy)
• Other definitions of the people
• Is there a public interest? Is it in tension
  with the will of the people?
• Maybe we dont want a democracy

4
Democracy do we want it?

• Platos typology of governments types of
  government in descending order of goodness
• Aristocracy
• Timarchy
• Oligarchy
• Democracy
• Platos description of democracy (Waterfield,
  296, 297, 302, 303)
• (Source Robin Waterfield, trans., intro., notes.
  1993. Republic by Plato. Oxford and New York
  Oxford University Press.)

5
Democracy do we want it?

• Aristotles typology of governments
• . Kingship and Aristocracy are best, but
  Polity appears to be most stable.
• (Source Ernest Barker, trans. revised,
  introduction and notes by R.F. Stalley. 1998.
  Politics by Aristotle. Oxford and New York
  Oxford University Press Oxford Worlds Classics.)

6
Democracy

• Attitudes?
• Behaviors?
• Structures?
• Set of principles?
• Any pre-requisites or requirements?
• Memory
• Ritual
• Human ability and will
• Pre-constitutional unanimity (Tullock and
  Buchanan Rawls)

7
Is democracy a matter of government structures?

• Do the structures facilitate accomplishment of
  the will of the people or hinder it?
• USAs systems of governments
• Swiss Confederalism
• United Kingdoms unitary government
• Parliament and prime minister
• Corporate-state partnership (a la Europe)
• Other possibilities

8
Is democracy a matter of government functions,
practices, and procedures?(Recall the
facilitate or hinder rule and the three
principles.)

• Rule-making and agency hearings, adjudication
• Congressional rules legislative hearings
• Judicial procedures
• Substantive due process and procedural due
  process venue ripeness etc.
• The justice (sentencing, etc.)/penal system
• 2 million in U.S. prisons maybe prison is
  democracy!
• Open meetings, FOIA, classified information
• Social democracy social justice
• Single-member or multiple-member districts
  first-past-the post
• Proportional representation
• Electoral college
• New England town meeting virtual democracy
• Work 20 hours a week do democracy 20 hours a week

9
Is democracy simply majority rule?

• Which majority?
• How large a majority?
• How do we know what the majority wants?
• With or without minority rights? Any limits on
  minority rights?

10
Which majority?

• Electoral majorities is 50.1 democratic?
• 50.1 of what?
• Congressional majorities is 51 of 100 in the
  Senate democratic?
• Bureaucratic majorities is three of five
  democratic? (example decisions by FCCs
  Commissioners)
• Court majorities is 5-4 democratic?
• Public opinion polls

11
How large a majority?

• First-past-the-post simple majority
  super-majority unanimity
• Is there a minimum participation rule?
• Below what level of participation is a system no
  longer a democracy?

12
How do we know what the majority wants?

• Voice
• Access to the media
• Recall, referendum, initiative, protest, civil
  disobedience, terrorism
• Disenfranchisement of felons
• Political parties
• Single party system, two-party system,
  multi-party system
• Democrats, Republicans, Social Democrats,
  Christian Democrats, Communists, National
  Socialists, Libertarians,etc.
• Interest groups, etc.
• Public opinion polls
• Vote (who-time-place)
• Arrows Impossibility Theorem social welfare
  functions (An explanation of Arrows
  Impossibility Theorem http//www-tech.mit.edu/V123
  /N8/8voting.8n.html)

13
With or without minority rights?

• Why worry about minority rights?

14
Are constitutional limits necessarily part of
democracy?

• No simply follow the will of the people
• Yes
• What/which kinds of limits?
• Only those expressly enumerated?
• To whom do the limits apply?
• Foreign prisoners and torture
• What about common law?

15
If consent is not informed, is there a democracy?

• How informed do we need to be (e.g., what and
  how much do we need to know)?
• Whose responsibility is it to inform?
• Service learning ADP

16
Can there be democracy without a free market
economy (and private property?)

• The problematique of a free market
• Low transaction costs? Low information costs?
  Relative power symmetry?
• Public and social goods externalities and
  N-order consequences
• Lipsey and Lancasters Theory of Second-Best
• Social democracy and social justice (again)
  welfare democracy
• Utilitarianism
• Communalism

17
Is democracy threatened by disparities in wealth
and class?

• The issue of opportunity structures

18
Can there be democracy if it is only in the
public sphere?

• Group, organizational, and corporate governance,
  structure, dynamics, behavior, accountability
• Is hierarchy antithetical to democracy?

19
Is democracy in the beliefs and behaviors of
individuals acting severally and in groups?

• Civicpolitical engagement (Mehaffeys
  distinction)
• The minimum participation rule (again)
• Service learning (again)

20
Is democracy organic or by nature?

• By nature according to an ideal that remains
  fixed, unalterable, unambiguous
• Organic evolving, unfolding change in
  (meaning of) ideals
• A post-modern sentiment We dont need to know
  where we are going before we leave, but we can
  agree to leave together.
• Democracy is not a destination, its a journey

21
Democracy is

• Time-consuming, messy, confusing, frustrating,
  demanding, chaotic
• Vigorous, inventive, self-creating,
  self-renewing, dynamic, hopeful, open, inclusive,
  tolerant,
• A roiling ululation of cacophonous ids
• Equal opportunity
• Mottled, splotched, striated, blotted, marbled,
  imbricolated, fused, splintered, fractured,
  feathered, woven, pooled, gathered, stuffed,
  tossed, boreal, rhyzomatic, mosaic, pot pouri
• Social transcendence
• A collective going-under and a collective
  going-over (socialized Nietzsche)
• An inchoate symphony of dissimilar voices
• A public library
• Public and universal education
• Community and communion with respect for
  individual differences
• A recognition of the equality of individuals in
  some fundamental sense
• Dead, if we treat it as a museum piece

22
Is it really democracy that we seek?