Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

of democracy (such as participation or inclusion). Dahl does not give
much attention to whether these attributes of democracy are compatible
at all and if so at what values or levels. He intends that participation
should be equal among citizens, and is not much interested in how
participation relates to, say, deliberation.
Here I am concerned less with the question of how equal the distribution
of these goods among individuals should be than with relations
among the goods. Participation, agenda control, and inclusion
are crucial democratic goods. But democracy would be extraordinary
and even unique among political and social forms if all good things
went together at all levels.
I have never been a member of a firm, university, political organization,
or family where this was so – or where people expected it to be
so. With democracy, however, this extraordinary expectation seems
almost routine among political theorists, even if it is rarely spelled
out fully.
By democracy I mean that equal citizens choose a government through
open elections. For analytical purposes this means starting with a relatively
robust interpretation of all five elements – effective participation,
voting equality, enlightened understanding, control of the agenda,
and inclusion.
Participation, for example, means that it is plausible for an
individual to embark on a course of activity that would be relevant for
a political process or issue. Participation means a practical capacity
for such action. Thus it goes well beyond the idea that formal barriers
to action are not impassable.
Dahl’s account of the core features of democracy provides a good
point of reference for surveying many of the main models of democracy
on offer in contemporary discussions about its meaning and dynamics.
We can identify these different models of democracy based on which
of Dahl’s requirements they emphasize.
The requirement of effective participation is a core theme for
accounts of participatory democracy.
The insistence on voting equality is central for accounts of what I
will call basic democracy or simply democracy.
The emphasis on understanding of alternative choices is a major
feature of deliberative democracy.
69
DEMOCRATIC VIRTUES
David Plotke