An Ethically Relevant Concept of Democracy

Abstract

The meaning of democracy has traditionally been linked to the institutionalisation of public use of reason as jointly exercised by individuals who act in accordance with moral duty rather than one’s desires. For this reason, the meaning and value of democracy are always closely linked. Popular theories of democracy, however, have only treated democracy as instrumentally valuable – merely some disposable means towards achieving and solving problems of justice, freedom, equality, etc. This has called into question the usefulness of having democracy in the first place. My aim is to show that deliberation should be taken into account in ethical analyses of democracy. Thus, I demonstrate that the concept of deliberative democracy is ethically relevant – i.e., deserves moral consideration, enables us to treat democracy as inherently valuable (or something close to it), and subsequently preserves the value of democracy both in our political and moral theorising and in our ordinary dealings.