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The Constitution of Equality: Democratic Authority and Its Limits
What is the ethical basis of democracy? And what reasons do we have to go along with democratic decisions even when we disagree with them? And when do we have reason to say that we may justly ignore democratic decisions? These questions must be answered if we are to have answers to some of the most important questions facing our global community, which include whether there is a human right to democracy and whether we must attempt to spread democracy throughout the globe.
The Constitution of Equality provides a philosophical account of the moral foundations of democracy and of liberalism. It shows how democracy and basic liberal rights are grounded in the principle of public equality, which tells us that in the establishment of law and policy we must treat persons as equals in ways they can see are treating them as equals. The principle of public equality is shown to be the fundamental principle of social justice. This account enables us to understand the nature and roles of adversarial politics and public deliberation in political life. It gives an account of the grounds of the authority of democracy. It also shows when the authority of democracy runs out. Christiano shows how the violations of democratic and liberal rights are beyond the legitimate authority of democracy, how the creation of persistent minorities in a democratic society, and the failure to ensure a basic minimum for all persons weaken the legitimate authority of democracy.
The Constitution of Equality provides a philosophical account of the moral foundations of democracy and of liberalism. It shows how democracy and basic liberal rights are grounded in the principle of public equality, which tells us that in the establishment of law and policy we must treat persons as equals in ways they can see are treating them as equals. The principle of public equality is shown to be the fundamental principle of social justice. This account enables us to understand the nature and roles of adversarial politics and public deliberation in political life. It gives an account of the grounds of the authority of democracy. It also shows when the authority of democracy runs out. Christiano shows how the violations of democratic and liberal rights are beyond the legitimate authority of democracy, how the creation of persistent minorities in a democratic society, and the failure to ensure a basic minimum for all persons weaken the legitimate authority of democracy.
- GenresPhilosophy
320 pages, Paperback
First published May 8, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 19, 2013
Christiano is a philosopher, and this book is primarily written for other philosophers. This means that the writing will necessarily be turgid at times. You will frequently realize that you've read three pages that did nothing but prove a point that you just as easily would have accepted on faith. While that isn't a technical knock on the book - although he probably could have made things more lively at times - the organization of the subsections in the chapters is a problem. For instance, Christiano will frequently say that "I will proceed in 4 (or 5, or whatever) steps", proceed to outline them, and then introduce the first step in the following subsection. That's fine. Then maybe the second step will occur in the next subsection. So far so good. But then the following subsection might elaborate further on the second step. At this point you might get confused - is this still the second step or has he introduced the third one? If it's the former, why is this a new subsection? And if he wanted to elaborate on a particular step (maybe the second step is especially nuanced), why not use sub-subsections? And given that in his outlines he is obsessed with enumerating the elements contained in each subsection, why not number the sections and subsections in such a way as to make it easier to follow? Eg.: Section 3.1, Section 3.2, Section 3.21, Section 3.22, Section 3.3, etc. There are many ways of doing this, but any such scheme would have made this dry work much easier to navigate.
Fortunately there is a lot of good in this ambitious book. In it you'll find a defense of equality as the basis for both democracy and liberal rights (and hence a justification both for the establishment of democracy as well as its limits), an argument against philosophical anarchism, and a critique of strands of deliberative democracy that insist of "reasonableness" as a criterion for political discussion. It's unlikely that you'll agree with everything he says. Some of the obvious critiques can be addressed by reading his The Rule of the Many, while others are just soft spots in his work.
This was not a fun read, but it was a worthwhile one. Get through it and reward yourself with some ice cream and a novel when you're done.
Fortunately there is a lot of good in this ambitious book. In it you'll find a defense of equality as the basis for both democracy and liberal rights (and hence a justification both for the establishment of democracy as well as its limits), an argument against philosophical anarchism, and a critique of strands of deliberative democracy that insist of "reasonableness" as a criterion for political discussion. It's unlikely that you'll agree with everything he says. Some of the obvious critiques can be addressed by reading his The Rule of the Many, while others are just soft spots in his work.
This was not a fun read, but it was a worthwhile one. Get through it and reward yourself with some ice cream and a novel when you're done.
April 8, 2011
The substance was intriguing but the writing was a bit dense. Basing both democracy and individual rights on political equality seems to me a promising idea, although I have reservations about Christiano's use of "wide" deliberation that permits unreasonable comprehensive doctrines full play within democratic debate.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews