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