Democratic Theory and the Public Interest: Condorcet and Rousseau Revisited

1989 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 1317-1340 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Estlund ◽  
Jeremy Waldron ◽  
Bernard Grofman ◽  
Scott L. Feld
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Collective Consciousness ◽  
General Will ◽  
The Public ◽  
Condorcet’S Jury Theorem ◽  
Marquis De Condorcet ◽  
Jury Theorem

Bernard Grofman and Scott Feld argued in the June 1988 issue of this Review that Jean-Jacques Rousseau's contributions to democratic political theory could be illuminated by invoking the theorizing of one of his eighteenth-century contemporaries, the Marquis de Condorcet, about individual and collective preferences or judgments. Grofman and Feld's claims about collective consciousness and the efficacy of the public interest provoke debate. One focus of discourse lies in the application of Condorcet's jury theorem to Rousseau's theory of the general will. In this controversy David M. Estlund and Jeremy Waldron in turn raise a variety of issues of theory and interpretation; Grofman and Feld then extend their argument, and propose clarifications.

Architecture, Space, and Abstraction in the Eighteenth-Century French Public Sphere

2008 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Wittman
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
General Will ◽  
Spatial Experience ◽  
The Public ◽  
Spatial Dimensions ◽  
The Public Sphere

This essay investigates the spatial dimensions of the eighteenth-century transformation of the public sphere through the lens of contemporary French architectural culture. It analyzes not only how architecture was translated into discursive forms so as to maintain its publicity within a spatially exploded, informational public sphere but also how the concreteness of architecture and real spatial experience was sometimes appropriated in order to render the abstractions consecrated by this public sphere——like public opinion and the general will——less nebulous.

scholarly journals Condorcet’s jury theorem: General will and epistemic democracy

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 147-170
Author(s):  
Miljan Vasic
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Historical Source ◽  
General Will ◽  
Epistemic Democracy ◽  
Condorcet’S Jury Theorem ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
Jury Theorem ◽  
Epistemic Theory ◽  
Theory Of Democracy

My aim in this paper is to explain what Condorcet?s jury theorem is, and to examine its central assumptions, its significance to the epistemic theory of democracy and its connection with Rousseau?s theory of general will. In the first part of the paper I will analyze an epistemic theory of democracy and explain how its connection with Condorcet?s jury theorem is twofold: the theorem is at the same time a contributing historical source, and the model used by the authors to this day. In the second part I will specify the purposes of the theorem itself, and examine its underlying assumptions. Third part will be about an interpretation of Rousseau?s theory, which is given by Grofman and Feld relying on Condorcet?s jury theorem, and about criticisms of such interpretation. In the fourth, and last, part I will focus on one particular assumption of Condorcet?s theorem, which proves to be especially problematic if we would like to apply the theorem under real-life conditions; namely, the assumption that voters choose between two options only.

Public interest

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Weale
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Utility Maximization ◽  
Indivisible Goods ◽  
General Will ◽  
The Public ◽  
Civic Republicanism ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
Social Goods

The concept of the public interest can be used in a wide variety of ways, and this has led many to say that it is devoid of meaning. However, the concept enables us to evaluate the tendency of policies and institutions to promote the interests of the members of a society considered in their broadest relations, for example in connection with policies to promote public health. In this sense it has significance. Historically, the concept of the public interest has drawn upon three main traditions of thought: the utilitarian idea of utility maximization; the tradition of civic republicanism; and Rousseau’s idea of the general will. Nowadays, three main ways of meeting the public interest are distinguishable: the supply of certain indivisible goods like clean air; the preservation of identity-conferring social goods like a distinctive language; and the balancing of competing considerations in the making of public policy. Although the provision of goods in the public interest may be associated with injustice, there is no reason in general to think that justice and the public interest must conflict.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 345-348
Author(s):  
Joseph Heath
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Administrative State ◽  
Constitutional Convention ◽  
The Public ◽  
Administrative Power ◽  
The Way

The growth of the administrative state creates a dilemma for the civil service. In order to guide the exercise of administrative power, it is compelled to develop its own conception of the public interest. And yet it appears to be prohibited from doing so both by democratic theory and constitutional convention. The solution to the dilemma lies in an understanding of the way that liberal principles inform the practice of public administration, in particular, the principles of efficiency, equality and liberty. This brief concluding chapter offers a summary of the argument, offered over the course of the book, in defense of this position.

The Public Interest and Political Theory

Ethics ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 277-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
William D. Zarecor
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
The Public

scholarly journals From public reason to deliberative democracy

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 237-256
Author(s):  
Ivan Mladenovic
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Public Reason ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Relationship

In this paper I shall investigate the relationship between public reason and deliberative democracy, mainly as it is presented in Rawls?s later political theory. Against the critics who claim that Rawls has no deliberative democratic theory, I shall argue that he presented a complex view of public deliberation that contains a set of formal and substantive requirements derived from the idea of public reason. My main aim in this paper is to defend and further elaborate the thesis that Rawls?s later political theory is crucially important for deliberative democracy. Furthermore, in light of the recent literature on deliberative democracy, I examine the relevance of Rawls?s view for addressing some current problems, but also look at some limits of the public reason perspective.

General will

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter P. Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Political Community ◽  
General Interest ◽  
General Will ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual

The fundamental claim for general will is that the members of a political community, as members, share a public or general interest or good which is for the benefit of them all and which should be put before private interests. When the members put the general good first, they are willing the general will of their community. The claim was given special and influential shape by Rousseau. He produced a comprehensive theory of the legitimacy of the state and of government, revolving around the general will. Some contend this solves the central problem of political philosophy – how the individual can both be obliged to obey the state’s laws, and be free. If laws are made by the general will, aimed at the common good and expressed by all the citizens, the laws must be in accordance with the public interest and therefore in the interest of each, and each is obliged by the law yet free because they are its author. Rousseau’s formulation has been much criticized. But others have found it essentially true and have variously adapted it.

scholarly journals Fire tekststykker knyttet til samemisjonæren Thomas von Westen 1716-1723

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 85-105
Author(s):  
Randi Skjelmo
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
Early Eighteenth Century ◽  
Personal Consciousness

Four Texts Concerning Thomas von Westen's Mission among the Sámi 1716-1723.Thomas von Westen (1682-1727) was responsible for a mission concerning the Sámi population in Norway in the early Eighteenth-Century. The mission was initiated by the Danish-Norwegian King Frederik 4th and the Society for Promoting Lutheran Christianity in Copenhagen 1715. von Westen wrote a significant number of documents concerning the mission. These documents comprise instructions, reports, public correspondence, personal letters and statements. This article concerns four of these texts; a letter to the parish that von Westen worked in when he was appointed leader of missionary work (1716), a letter to the Society for Promoting Lutheran Christianity (1718), the Nærøy manuscript (1723) and finally a letter concerning the establishment of connections to ecclesiastical authorities in Swedish Lapland (1723). Thomas von Westen’s writings reflect his engagement in the mission, his preaching and how he introduced Christianity to the Sámi people by guiding them to personal consciousness and public confession. His documents reflect both his own ambitions and the public interest in the missionary work.

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