Must Democracy Be Reasonable?

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Christiano
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Past ◽  
Moral Debate ◽  
The Common

Democratic theorists stress the importance of free and equal discussion and debate in a well-functioning democratic process. In this process, citizens attempt to persuade each other to support legislation by appealing to considerations of justice, liberty or the common good and are open to changing their minds when hearing the arguments of others. They are concerned to ground policy and legislation on the most defensible considerations of morality and the best empirical evidence. To be sure, majority rule remains important in democratic decision making because of the persistence of disagreement. But many have argued that debates over legislation that appeal to moral considerations ought to be given a much larger place in our understanding of the ideals of democracy than theorists have given them in the past. This emphasis on the importance of moral debate and discussion in democracy is characteristic of what I call the wide view of deliberative democracy.

scholarly journals The Moral Legitimacy of NGOs as Partners of Corporations

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothea Baur ◽  
Guido Palazzo
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Moral Legitimacy ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Common

ABSTRACT:Partnerships between companies and NGOs have received considerable attention in CSR in the past years. However, the role of NGO legitimacy in such partnerships has thus far been neglected. We argue that NGOs assume a status as special stakeholders of corporations which act on behalf of the common good. This role requires a particular focus on their moral legitimacy. We introduce a conceptual framework for analysing the moral legitimacy of NGOs along three dimensions, building on the theory of deliberative democracy. Against this background we outline three procedural characteristics which are essential for judging the legitimacy of NGOs as potential or actual partners of corporations.

Democratic Deliberations, Equality of Influence, and Pragmatism

1998 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 253-272
Author(s):  
Judith Baker
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Current Program ◽  
The Common ◽  
To Come ◽  
Ideal Framework ◽  
The Ideal

Democracy is committed to procedures of decision-making which express the values of both political equality and truth. One current program, that of strong or deliberative democracy, explicitly defends institutions which reflect the dual commitments to truth and equality. Like many other political theorists, however, deliberative democrats do not address the issue of a minority group which always loses the vote. The presumption is that free and equal deliberation by agents who think in terms of the common good is sufficient for political equality. I will argue, however, that the proposed deliberative procedures do not preclude persistent failure for a minority, and that this problem should lead us to acknowledge that power relations can underpin decision-making arrangements even within the ideal framework of deliberative democracy. Political equality and effective political equality seem to come apart.In order to come closer to the idea of effective political equality, this paper will look at the notion of equality of influence. It may seem tautological, and so redundant, to argue that political egalitarians and particularly deliberative democrats need to recognize equality of influence.

Civic Disengagement in Contemporary America

2001 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert D. Putnam
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Common Good ◽  
The United States ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Past ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
The Common

Over The Past Two Generations The United States Has Undergone a series of remarkable transformations. It has helped to defeat global communism, led a revolution in information technology that is fuelling unprecedented prosperity, invented life-saving treatments for diseases from AIDS to cancer, and made great strides in reversing discriminatory practices and promoting equal rights for all citizens. But during these same decades the United States also has undergone a less sanguine transformation: its citizens have become remarkably less civic, less politically engaged, less socially connected, less trusting, and less committed to the common good. At the dawn of the millennium Americans are fast becoming a loose aggregation of disengaged observers, rather than a community of connected participants.

scholarly journals Georgia’s rural hospital closures: The common-good approach to ethical decision-making

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-303
Author(s):  
Randi Bastian ◽  
◽  
Marcus Garner ◽  
John Barron ◽  
Emmanuel Akowuah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Rural Hospital ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Hospital Closures ◽  
The Common

scholarly journals Contemporary Nigeria and the Deficit of Deliberative Democracy: Exploring the Indigenous Value of Àgbájọ ọwọ́ as Collegiality

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Ronald Olufemi Badru
Keyword(s):  
Critical Point ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
The Common

The paper advances three groups of interrelated claims. First, a fundamental deficit of democratic practice in contemporary Nigeria is that electoral choices/candidates are largely disconnected from the spirit of vibrant deliberation/consideration by the Nigerian demos. Second, candidates that emerge tend to be more parochially disposed to serving the interests of the political sponsors, rather than working towards the promotion of the common good. Third, to address the problem of the research, it is argued that well-meaning, democratically conscious Nigerians should practically embrace the indigenous value of àgbájọ ọwọ́as collegiality to resist electoral choices/candidates of the noted politically influential elites. As one of the socio-moral values of an ideal Yoruba persona, or ọmọlúwàbí, àgbájọ ọwọ́ underscores the critical point that the realty of the common good properly derives from a rational collaboration of the members of a political collectivity. Ultimately, this understanding of collegiality helps in the promotion of deliberative democracy and its benefits in Nigeria.

The Ethics of Voting

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Civic Duty ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Common ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The Right

Nothing is more integral to democracy than voting. Most people believe that every citizen has the civic duty or moral obligation to vote, that any sincere vote is morally acceptable, and that buying, selling, or trading votes is inherently wrong. This book challenges our fundamental assumptions about voting, revealing why it is not a duty for most citizens—in fact, it argues, many people owe it to the rest of us not to vote. Bad choices at the polls can result in unjust laws, needless wars, and calamitous economic policies. The book shows why voters have duties to make informed decisions in the voting booth, to base their decisions on sound evidence for what will create the best possible policies, and to promote the common good rather than their own self-interest. They must vote well—or not vote at all. This book explains why voting is not necessarily the best way for citizens to exercise their civic duty, and why some citizens need to stay away from the polls to protect the democratic process from their uninformed, irrational, or immoral votes. In a democracy, every citizen has the right to vote. This book reveals why sometimes it's best if they don't. In a new afterword, “How to Vote Well,” the book provides a practical guidebook for making well-informed, well-reasoned choices at the polls.

Defeating Fake News; On Journalism, Knowledge, and Democracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Ball
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Knowledge Transmission ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Informational Environment ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe central thesis of this paper is that fake news and related phenomena serve as defeaters for knowledge transmission via journalistic channels. This explains how they pose a threat to democracy; and it points the way to determining how to address this threat. Democracy is both intrinsically and instrumentally good provided the electorate has knowledge (however partial and distributed) of the common good and the means of achieving it. Since journalism provides such knowledge, those who value democracy have a reason to protect it. Hostile agents, however, can undermine both the effectiveness of democratic decision-making and faith in democracy itself, by deliberately promulgating fake news and hyper-partisan views; moreover, these effects can come about unintentionally on social media. I conclude that we may need to change, not just the way we process information online, but also the informational environment in which we operate.

The Common Good

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-76
Author(s):  
Thaddeus Metz
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Past ◽  
Economic Sphere ◽  
The Common ◽  
Moral Philosophers

Chapter 4, which begins Part II, addresses the moral theory from the African tradition according to which one is obligated to promote the common good without violating individual rights. This principle has been advanced by Kwame Gyekye, one of the most widely discussed African moral philosophers of the past twenty-five years. His ‘moderate communitarian’ ethic, although focused on promoting well-being, differs from Western utilitarianism, such that one cannot argue against the former by invoking well-known criticisms of the latter. The chapter advances fresh reasons for rejecting Gyekye’s welfarist approach to morality, principally on the ground that it does a poor job of capturing several intuitions salient in the African tradition. Sometimes permitting great inequalities of wealth, being competitive in the economic sphere, and undermining cultures can best improve well-being without violating individual rights, yet many African philosophers would judge these actions to be wrong to some degree.

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