Democracy: Normative Theory

Normative democratic theory deals with the ethical foundations of democracy and democratic institutions. It does not offer in the first instance a scientific study of those societies that are called democratic. It aims to provide an account of when and why democracy is ethically desirable as well as ethical principles for guiding the design of democratic institutions. It is inherently interdisciplinary and must call on the results of political science, sociology, and economics in order to give this kind of concrete guidance. This brief outline of normative democratic theory focuses attention on three distinct issues in recent work. First, it outlines some different approaches to the question of why democracy is morally desirable at all. Second, it explores the problem of the rationality of participation in large democratic societies given the inevitably small impact of participants on the outcomes. It also discusses blueprints of democratic institutions for dealing with this. Third, it surveys different accounts of the proper characterization of equality in the processes of representation. The last two parts display the interdisciplinary nature of normative democratic theory.