Degrees of democraticity

Authors

  • Lars Bergström

Keywords:

Alf Ross, Changes of Power, Corruption, Democracy, Discrimination, Ideal Type, Individual Rights, Representation, Subsidiarity

Abstract

People have tended to load their different conceptions of democracy with their own political ideals; in this paper it is argued that normative and definitional questions should rather be separated, so that political philosophers and political scientists may adopt the same concept of democracy, even if they disagree normatively or politically. Moreover, it is argued that we should replace an absolute notion of democracy by a relativized notion, which allows for different degrees of democraticity. This facilitates the separation of normative and conceptual issues and it is convenient in contexts in which “democratic deficits” are discussed – as e.g. when democracy is to be implemented on a supranational level. Moreover, it has the consequence that democratic deficits are not necessarily bad.

DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1837342

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Published

21-12-2010

How to Cite

Bergström, L. (2010) “Degrees of democraticity”, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 1(5). Available at: https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/19 (Accessed: 8 May 2024).

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 5 (2011): Democracy in a Globalised World

Section

Thematic Articles

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