problems with democracyrule of the people?

the majority- no longer a power of the people, only of the majority- tyranny of the majority

≈ rule of number, not of reason- epistemic problem: how to reach good decisions‘the problem of stupidity’: democracy is not as such about the goodness or wisdom of decisions

the (fluctuating) will of the people- factionalism, conflicts between groups- continuous power struggle- instability, war, anarchy

‘the strongest will rule anyway’- everyone cannot rule- who is really in power?

democracydemos + kratein: power/rule of the people

moral ideal

- freedom- equality- pluralism- participation (of all (demos)) in power+- peace (political society vs. war)

system of government/mode of action

- sufficient unity- functionality- capability to make and implement decisions- stability

ought to regulate

realist limits on the ideal

set of other issues- definition of the people- who and what is really ruling?- other values (reason)

types of response:

mixed government, incorporating non-democratic elements within democracy

• Aristotle: combination of oligarchy and democracy- political society (politeia): has the common good as its aim: make the good life possible for all by means of a system of government and rule that enhances these possibilities- simultaneously individualistic and corporative (republican conception)”oligarchy has in view the interest of the wealthy; democracy of the needy: none of them the common good of all … oligarchy is when the men of property have the government in their hands; democracy, the opposite, when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers … the real difference between democracy and oligarchy is poverty and wealth” (Aristotle, The Politics III:8)

- solution: rule of the middle ‘classes’- educational aspect: first learn what it means to be ruled (up until 35 years of age), then take part in the ruling

• combining democracy with other values, especially reason- Rousseau: the general will (≈ what is in the reasonable interest of all) ought to rule (democratic republicanism)- a simultaneously rationalist and democratic conception epistemic problem: how do we know the general will? the wise legislator (incorporates more reason)- Hegel: the universalist class of bureaucrats whose task it is to think the universal(not democracy, non-democratic republicanism)

types of response

mixed government, incorporating non-democratic elements within democracy

• democracy and a representative system representative democracy- the representative system is not originally part of democracy- representative board ≈ elected oligarchy- Thomas Paine:

”The representative system takes society and civilisation for its basis; nature, reason, and experience, for its guide … the representative system of government is calculated to produce the wisest laws, by collectingwisdom from where it can be found … By ingrafting representation upon democracy, we arrive at a system of government capable of embracing and confederating all the various interests and every extent of territory and population” Rights of Man, Chapter 3 (1791)

- increases the amount of reason, makes possible democracy in larger populations

• the aggregative model- a system that gradually increases the amount of reason in political governmentpublic debate non-governmental organisations political parties representative body government policy

• Robert A. Dahl: contemporary democracy is a polyarchy (a set of different issues internally related with each other: participation, institutional frameworks, multiparty system, administrative apparatus etc.)(1989, Democracy and Its Critics)

types of response

radicalising or reformulating the ideal:

• ‘democratization of democracy’

• radical conceptions of democracy

• relocating democracy in action (vs. in the system of government)

• deliberative democracy- not opposed to the idea of mixed government

politics

the political

neutral usage:

the art of government- used to define the domain of politics

diagnostic-critical usage:

a region of being- the co-existence of a plurality of human beings - with divergent positions and views- the existence of antagonism- and power relations- unified by something (the common)- an aim to settle their co-existence in a peaceful manner

- anchors politics and other societal processes at a deeper level of reality (political ontology)

the theoreticians of the political:

- activity involving the art of government (of the whole of a society)- often differentiated from other areas of activity: economic activity, jurisprudence (legality), private life

diagnostic-critical usage:

• the ‘standard’ ways of viewing society and political order (also in philosophy) do not manage to bring the whole of political reality into view- standard view: the art of government and the form (system) of government

• insofar as politics (and political philosophy) is about questions of power, of what governs us, the standard view is far too limited

• Foucault: studies the forms of power present in the practices and institutional arrangements in society at large (a broader view on power that anchors forms of power in contingent, historical constellation) historical constellation as regime (compare Lefort)- philosophy/genealogy as a critical ontology of ourselves- makes visible what really steers us (what we are, do and think)

• Hannah Arendt: the contemporary conflation between ‘management of the social system’ (economic balance, social policies etc.), and- politics as the constructive creation of something new, of thinking the direction, of the people or humanity as a plurality acting in concert to bring into view the political ground of society the rehabilitation of politics- a certain nostalgia for politics as the creation of the new

the political

a region of being- the co-existence of a plurality of human beings - with divergent positions and views- the existence of antagonism- and power relations- unified by something (the common)- an aim to settle their co-existence in a peaceful manner

politics

defines a specific area of activity

economic activity

the law court

private life

another region of being another region

of being

another region of being

the political

a region of being- the co-existence of a plurality of human beings - with divergent positions and views- the existence of antagonism- and power relations- unified by something (the common)- an aim to settle their co-existence in a peaceful manner

politics

economic activity

the law court

private life

fundamental to the constitution of society as a whole

the political

a region of being- co-existence of a plurality- divergent positions and views- antagonism- power relations- unification- settle their co-existence

problems:- plurality is not unity- divergence is not settlement- antagonism is not peace- power is the power of some over others ≈ domination- a unity of whom and what?

constitutive problems

the task of constitution

constitutive problems

the task of constitution

social contract

- agreement that settles basic issues (the basic structure of society)- settles issues of political authority (who has the right to use power)

liberal social contract

- the agreement involves a set of basic moral principles- guaranteeing equal rights of freedom to all

- Rawls: involves agreement on basic (moral) principles of (distributive) justice

‘democratic’ contract

- agreement on the legitimate principles of political processes- involves basic citizenship rights

- deliberative democracy: justice as norm of the process (vs. the distribution of resources)

social contract

- agreement that settles basic issues (the basic structure of society)- settles issues of political authority (who has the right to use power)

liberal social contract

- the agreement involves a set of basic moral principles- guaranteeing equal rights of freedom to all

- Rawls: involves agreement on basic (moral) principles of (distributive) justice

‘democratic’ contract

- agreement on the legitimate principles of political processes- involves basic citizenship rights

- deliberative democracy: justice as norm of the process (vs. the distribution of resources)the theoreticians

of the political:

- main insight: lack of ultimate foundation- Rancière: an-archic ground- constitution is an action (an agreement)- involves power- paradox of the people

- constructs a moral foundation of the political order: primacy of rights and principles of justice- the domain of politics limited and conditioned by moral principles- anti-political, rationalistic- liberalism: against domination ≈ skepticism towards the political

- moral principles that set limits and conditions on political processes- rational criteria of legitimate processes- too rationalistic view of politics