Democracy [addendum]
It is widely agreed that democracy is a system of gov-ernment in which the people rule. Since the term "democracy" is often also used to describe nonpolitical communities—such as religious congregations, clubs, and athletic teams—democracy may be understood more generally to be a system in which the community is governed through the participation of its members. Thoroughly understanding democracy therefore requires answers to five key questions about this process of participation: What does democracy presuppose? What are the principal instruments that democracies must employ? What conditions are critical for its success? How can democracies be appraised? How can democracy be theoretically defended?
Presuppositions of Democracy
For a democracy to be realized in any context, the community to be governed must self-consciously recognize itself as such, those entitled to participate in its government must be identified as citizens or members, and the extent of the community's concerns, both geographical and theoretical, must be at least roughly agreed upon. In short, democracy presupposes community.
Democratic government is possible only if members of the community can participate in decision making. They must be able to communicate effectively and to grasp the relations of means to ends. Participating citizens will not always be rational, of course, but at a minimum, democracy presupposes that members of the community have a capacity for rationality.
This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This
article contains 1,787 words (approx. 6 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Democracy [addendum] Access Pass.
