Democratic Legitimacy

177 Pages·2008·1.719 MB·English

by  Fabienne Peter

Democratic Legitimacy
Routledge Studies in
Social and Political Thought
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20. The Nature of Capital 30. The Intellectual as Stranger
Marx after Foucault Studies in Spokespersonship
Richard Marsden Dick Pels
21. The Age of Chance 31. Hermeneutic Dialogue and
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Habermas
22. Refl exive Historical Sociology Austin Harrington
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Edited by W. S. F. Pickering Lars Udehn
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of Noam Chomsky of Expression
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Philosophy
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43. Social and Political Ideas of 55. Frankfurt School Perspectives
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44. Counter-Enlightenments
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47. The Politics and Philosophy of Andrew Stables
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Fabienne Peter
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Democratic Legitimacy
Fabienne Peter
New York London
First published 2009
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
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© 2009 Fabienne Peter
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereaf-
ter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trade-
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Peter, Fabienne.
Democratic legitimacy / by Fabienne Peter.
p. cm. — (Routledge studies in social and political thought ; 62)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Democracy. 2. Legitimacy of governments. I. Title.
JC423.P383 2009
321.8—dc22
2008033991
ISBN 0-203-40139-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-33282-6 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-40139-5 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-33282-8 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-40139-2 (ebk)
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction 1
1.1. Democratic Legitimacy 1
1.2. Plan of the Book 3
2 Aggregative Democracy 7
2.1. The Aggregative Account of Democracy 7
2.2. Problems with Aggregative Democracy 20
3 Deliberative Democracy 31
3.1. The Deliberative Account of Democracy 31
3.2. Deliberative Democracy Defended 43
4 Conceptions of Democratic Legitimacy 56
4.1. The Concept of Legitimacy 56
4.2. A Taxonomy 65
5 Political Equality 75
5.1. Two Dilemmas 75
5.2. Political Equality of What? 81
6 Public Reason 92
6.1. Rawls’s Idea of Public Reason and Democratic Legitimacy 93
6.2. Democratic Legitimacy without Collective Rationality 100
7 Epistemic Democracy 110
7.1. The Epistemology of Democracy 110
7.2. Epistemic Proceduralism 129
viii Contents
Notes 137
Bibliography 149
Index 159
Acknowledgements
Inevitably, many people have, in many different ways, contributed to
this book and it would not exist without them. I am deeply grateful
for all the comments and criticisms that I have received over time, as
well as for all the encouragement and even for the occasional skeptical
look. Specifi cally, I would like to express my thanks to the following per-
sons—for comments, advice, and/or for their friendship: Arun Abraham,
Bina Agarwal, Elisabeth Allgoewer, Franck Amalric, Paul Anand, Sorin
Baiasu, Luc Bovens, Geoff Brennan, Harry Brighouse, Boudewijn de
Bruin, Matthew Clayton, David Estlund, Philippe Fontaine, Jerry Gaus,
Asha George, Paul Gomberg, Bob Goodin, Nien-hê Hsieh, Susan Hurley,
Eileen John, Eva Kittay, Roland Kley, Tony Laden, Christian List, Alain
Marciano, Stephen Marglin, Katrin Meyer, John Rawls, Norbert Reetz,
Sanjay Reddy, Andrew Reeve, Ingrid Robeyns, Herlinde Pauer-Studer,
Ben Saunders, Hans Bernhard Schmid, Amartya Sen, Kai Spiekermann,
Alex Voorhoeve, Jonathan Wolff, Mark Yakes, and Chris Zuern. I would
also like to express special thanks to my parents and to my two sisters
for their ongoing support.
Over the last couple of years, when I did most of the writing for this
book, I very much benefi tted from regular discussions with and comments
from Arun Abraham, Matthew Clayton, and Herlinde Pauer-Studer. I
am very grateful to them. And while I did not have many discussions
about the content of this book with Mark Yakes, his contribution has, in
many ways, been the most important one. I could not have fi nished the
book without his companionship during this time, and without what he
has taught me about life. I dedicate this book to him.
Many more persons have contributed than those just mentioned. I have
presented different parts of what eventually became this book at con-
ferences and workshops taking place at All Souls College Oxford, Uni-
versity of Reims, the APSA meetings in Chicago, University of Lisbon,
University College London, Freie Universitaet Berlin, and the University
of Manchester, and have received much helpful feedback. In addition, I
have greatly benefi tted from comments that I received on presentations
I gave in seminars at Harvard University, Max Weber Kolleg, Erfurt,