Ethics and Economics

Week 9

Democratic Justice

Tomáš Cahlík

Outline Democratic Justice Theory

Democratic Justice Applications

Ethics of Discourse

Democratic Justice Theory

Is the Schumpeterian conception of democracy too minimalist?

How well does it deliver two basic enlightment aims (individual freedom and scientific principles of truth)?

ad. freedom: Is the additional requirement of separation of powers necessary? Richard Dahl says no, based on and analysis of judicial reviews.

ad. truth: Schumpeterian conception of democracy is linked with the competitive argumentation ideal of J.S.Mill.

W. Churchill: Democracy is the worst system except of all others people have tried from time to time.

Democratic Justice Theory

Samuel Huntington and two turnovers of

power test

Democratic Justice Thory

When do people demand democracy?

What are people´s expectations of democracy?

Human beings are reactive creatures (A. Sen: The Idea of Justice)

Samuel Huntington: people will be inevitably disappointed after the change to democracy

Democratic Justice Thory

We cannot warn people against good

expectations

How can we promote justice by

democratic means?

Democratic Justice Theory

Democracy and Justice: both are

connected with fight against

domination

Starting with justice, we end with the

question, how to promote justice by

democratic means.

Starting with democracy, we end with the

fact that people expect from democracy the

delivery of justice

Democratic Justice Theory

Democratic Justice (of Ian Shapiro )

is based on: Broad conception of politics

What people want is contextuated

Superordinate x subordinate goods

„The goal of democratic justice is to

democratize the subordinate relations as much

as possible while interfering with the

superordinate goods as little as possible.“

Democratic Justice Theory

Conditions for getting democratic justice: collective self-government: principal of affected interests

legitimacy of opposition: we need loyal opposition

The best way how to institutionalize opposition is the presumption against hierarchy. We have to ask:

Is hierarchy inevitable?

Is the degree of hierarchy appropriate?

Whose interest does the hierarchy serve?

How fluid is the hierarchy?

Is the hierarchy symetrical?

What are the opportunities for exit?

How insular is the hierarchy?

How aggressive is the hierarchy?

Democratic Justice in Governing

Children

Is family a good place for collective

self-governance?

How does opposition work with

children?

Are the hierarchies in governing

children inevitable?

Democratic Justice in Governing

Children

On the governance side

John Locke The only basis for disenfranchising people is

necessity. We have this with children because of

their „ignorant non-age“.

We ought to disenfranchise no more than is

required by circumstances.

What childhood is has changed since Locke´s time.

Democratic Justice in Governing

Children

On the opposition side Loyal opposition has internalized and

understands the values of the system.

With children this does not work.

Democratic Justice in Governing

Children

Children are going to be stuck in

hierarchical situations.

Solution: Multiple hierarchies that

check one another

Democratic Justice in Governing

Children

Children have two types of interests,

basic interests and best interests.

State is the ultimate fiduciary of basic

interests and family of best interests.

Democratic Justice in Governing

Children

In a fiduciary relationship the charge does not

owe anything to the fiduciary after the relation

ends.

Is the relation between parents and children

really a fiduciary relation?

Lockes´s argumentation based on consent

Rawlsian argumentation based on moral

arbitrariness for the child of being your child

Heritage as glue between parents and children?

Is there any counterargumentation?

Democratic Justice in Governing

Children

Conflicting situations between best interests and

basic interests

How are conflicts to be handeled?

Example: Sexual morality before and after AIDS

– after AIDS, sexual morality becomes a public

health issue. This leads to insisting on certain

kinds of sexual education in schools, although it

ought to be as inobtrusive as possible of the

parent´s conception of childtren´s best interests.

Democratic Justice at a Firm

Is a firm a good place for collective

self-governance?

Are the hierarchies at a firm inevitable?

Democratic Justice at a Firm

Democratic firms are efficient in

circumstances where everybody can do

every job like some IT firms.

In the most firms, democracy comes at

cost to efficiency, e.g. too much time

lost in democratic decision making.

Efficiency is the superordinate good in

a firm

Democratic Justice at a Firm

Hierarchy is inevitable, how much should the

state regulate what goes on in firms?

Costs of exit are important for answering this

question

Exit for stockholders is easy

Easiness of exit for employees depends on the

power externalities within which the power

internalities of the firm actually take place.

A surfer´s paradise x a Dickensian nigtmare

Democratic Justice at a Firm

A surfer´s paradise Philippe Van Parijs 1997 „Real Freedom for

All “

Basic Income [Earth] Network [BIEN],

Democratic Justice at a Firm

Rethinking the relationship between

capital and labor Good social system on a country level is in the

interest of capitalists, it has the potential to increase

flexibility of firms

Good social system does not need to be result of

class struggle, but result of successful collective action

of firms

Ethics of discours

Jurgen Habermas (1929)

Moral principle is not related to

subjective conscience, but to

real communication –(contrast

with Kant and Rawls)

He analysis assumptions of just

discours

Ethics of discours

More understanding of his ideas in

the mandatory reading for this week.