Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

in question. It might well be that inclusion should be given a primary
role in one country due to its distinctive history while participation is
similarly crucial somewhere else.
Finally, as democracy is about self-government and the development
and expression of political preferences, we should expect a widening
range of democratic political trajectories. There can be convergence
on the idea that democracy requires a certain basic level of each of the
main democratic virtues. Beyond that, a democratic logic will increase
the range of choices actually made by different polities (and across
jurisdictions within them). Perhaps at some points almost everyone
will agree on the appropriate choices for shaping the best democracy,
but such agreements will be relatively brief. Everyone might favor a
kind of deliberative democracy – but not for long.
The main democratic virtues as actually practiced will interact to
create new possibilities and problems. New political forces (political
movements and other forms) will take shape. They will often make
claims about expanding the presence of one or another democratic
virtue, as a core theme. These efforts amount to probes that challenge
current settlements and raise new possibilities. Thus a democratic
horizon contains a plural and expanding set of practical choices about
relations among democratic virtues, and a growing range of theoretical
problems that arise under unexpected circumstances.
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DEMOCRATIC VIRTUES
David Plotke