"Contemporary Democratic Theory—Democracy and Its Critics" - Detailseite

It has been said that in the eighteenth century everyone knew what democracy was and nobody wanted it; two centuries later, nobody knew what it was but everyone wanted it. This rather trite proverb raises a number of questions.

• First, and most importantly, what is democracy? Is it an institutional arrangement, a practice/way of life, a mix of both, or something else entirely? Is it, as Churchill once said, the least worst form of government or is it intrinsically valuable? Is it even worth “wanting” at all?
• Second, what is the relationship between democracy and liberal rights? Democracy and majoritarianism? Democracy and equality/freedom? Democracy and representation/participation? Democracy and deliberation?
• Third, what might the future of democracy look like? More concretely, how do recent economic, social, and technological developments affect our beliefs about democracy’s value (or lack thereof)?

This course provides an overview of some historical, theoretical, and empirical answers to these questions. After motivating our inquiry by examining some reflections on the current state of democracy, we will briefly survey the eighteenth and early-nineteenth century origins of the idea of modern democracy. In the next section, we turn to more contemporary contributions to democratic theory to explore the relationship between democracy and liberalism, republicanism, “agonism,” partisanship, deliberation, and populism. In the third and final section, we will consider how the development of post-industrial capitalism, increased immigration and corresponding changes in the demographic make-up of the modern nation-state, and climate change, among other things, might shape our judgments about the future of democracy.

Suggested Readings:

Baiocchi, Gianpaolo. Militants and citizens: The politics of participatory democracy in Porto       Alegre. Stanford University Press, 2005.

Bell, Daniel A. The China model: Political meritocracy and the limits of democracy. Princeton University Press, 2016.

Benhabib, Seyla. Democracy and difference: Contesting the boundaries of the political.   Princeton University Press, 1996.

Gutmann, Amy, and Dennis Thompson. Why deliberative democracy? Princeton University       Press, 2009.

Mouffe, Chantal. The democratic paradox. Verso, 2000.

Pettit, Philip. On the people's terms: a republican theory and model of democracy. Cambridge   University Press, 2012.

Przeworski, Adam. Democracy and the limits of self-government. Cambridge University             Press,   2010.

Rosenblum, Nancy L. On the side of the angels: an appreciation of parties and partisanship.      Princeton University Press, 2010.