The Theory of Democracy Revisited

The Theory of Democracy Revisited

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OTHER BOOKS BY GIOVANNI SARTORI Democrazia e Definizioni ( 1957) Democratic Theory ( 1962) Il Parlamento Italiano ( 1963, ed.) Stato e Politica nel Pensiero di B. Croce ( 1966) Antologia di Scienza Politica ( 1970, ed.) Tower of Babel ( 1975, ed.) Parties and Party Systems ( 1976) La Politica: Logica e Metodo in Scienze Sociali ( 1979) Teoria dei Partiti e Caso Italiano ( 1982) Social Science Concepts: A Systematic Analysis ( 1984, ed.) Elementi di Politica ( 1987) -ii- The Theory of Democracy Revisited GIOVANNI SARTORI Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities Columbia University CHATHAM HOUSE PUBLISHERS, INC. Chatham, New Jersey -iii- THE THEORY OF DEMOCRACY REVISITED CHATHAM HOUSE PUBLISHERS, INC. Box One, Chatham, New Jersey 07928 Copyright © 1987 by Chatham House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Edward Artinian Design: Quentin Fiore Composition: Chatham Composer Printing and Binding: Hamilton Printing Company LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Sartori, Giovanni, 1924- The theory of democracy revisited. Includes indexes. I. Democracy. 1. Title. JC423.S2.74 1987 321.8 86-31013 ISBN 0-934540-46-2 ISBN 0-934540-47-0 (pbk. : v. 1) ISBN 0-934540-48-9 (pbk. : v. 2) Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 -iv- Contents PART ONE: THE CONTEMPORARY DEBATE 1. Can Democracy Be Just Anything? 3 1.1 The Age of Confused Democracy 3 1.2 Description and Prescription 7 1.3 Political and Other Democracies 8 1.4 Outline 12 1.5 A Coda on Theory 15 2. Etymological Democracy 21 2.1 The Meaning of People 21 2.2 The People in Mass Society 25 2.3 Power of the People and Power over the People 28 2.4 Limited Majority Rule 31 2.5 The Lincoln Formula 34 3. The Limits of Political Realism 39 3.1 What Is Pure Politics? 39 3.2 Warlike versus Peacelike Politics 41 3.3 Facts and Values in Benedetto Croce 44 3.4 Mosca, Pareto, and Michels 46 3.5 Realism versus Rationalism 48 3.6 Rational Democracy and Empirical Democracy 51 4. Perfectionism and Utopia 58 4.1 The Misunderstanding of Deontology 58 4.2 Myth and Utopia Reconsidered 60 4.3 Self-Government and the Politically Impossible 64 4.4 The Role of Ideals 67 4.5 Maximization, Opposite Danger, and Inverted Results 69 4.6 The Revolution as Myth 72 4.7 Ideals and Evidence 77 -v- 5. Governed Democracy and Governing Democracy 86 5.1 Public Opinion and Government by Consent 86 5. The Issue of Consensus 89 5.3 The Formation of Opinions 92 5.4 Autonomy versus Heteronomy of Public Opinion 96 5.5 Electoral Democracy 102 5.6 Participatory Democracy 111 5.7 Referendum Democracy and Knowledge 115 5.8 Government and Ungovernability 120

6. Vertical Democracy

131

	6.1 Majority Principle and Minority Rule 131
	6.2 The Tyranny of the Majority 133
	6.3 Election, Selection, and Mal-Selection 137
	6.4 Minorities and Elites 141
	6.5 Minority Rule: From Mosca to Dahl 145
	6.6 The Iron Law of Oligarchy 148
	6.7 The Competitive Theory of Democracy 152
	6.8 Anti-Elitism Revisited 156
	6.9 Polyarchy Defined Normatively 163

7. What Democracy Is Not 182 7.1 Contraries, Contradictories, and Degrees 182 7.2 Authoritarianism, Authority, and Power 185 7.3 Total State, Democracy, and Absolutism 190 7.4 Totalitarianism 193 7.5 Dictatorship and Autocracy 203

8. A Decision-Making Theory of Democracy 214 8.1 The Nature of Political Decisions 214 8.7 External Risks and Decisional Costs 216 8.3 Outcomes and Decisional Contexts 223 8.4 Intensity of Preference and Majority Rule 225 8.5 Committees and Unanimity 227 8.6 Committees, Participation, and Demo-Distribution 232 8.7 Consociational Democracy 238 8.8 A Coda on the Cost of Idealism 240

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PART TWO: THE CLASSICAL ISSUES

	9. What Is Democracy? Definition, Proof, and Preference 257 9.1 Are Definitions Arbitrary? 257 9.2 A Criticism of Conventionalism 260 9.3 Words as Experience Carriers 265 9.4 The Search for Proof 267 9.5 A Comparative Evaluation 271
	10. Greek Democracy and Modern Democracy 278 10.1 Homonymy, Not Homology 278 10.2 Direct or Polis Democracy 280 10.3 Individualism and Freedom: Old and New 284 10.4 The Modern Idea and Ideal 287 10.5 A Reversal of Perspectives 290
	11. Liberty and Law 298 11.1 Freedom and Freedoms 298 11.2 Political Freedom 301 11.3 Liberal Freedom 306 11.4 The Supremacy of Law in Rousseau 310 11.5 Autonomy: A Criticism 315 11.6 The Principle of Diminishing Consequences 320 11.7 From the Rule of Law to the Rule of Legislators 321
	12. Equality 337 12.1 A Protest Ideal 337 12.2 Justice and Sameness 338 12.3 Predemocratic and Democratic Equalities 341 12.4 Equal Opportunities and Equal Circumstances 344 12.5 Egalitarian Criteria, Treatments, and Outcomes 347 12.6 The Maximization of Equality 352 12.7 Liberty and Equality 357
	13. Liberism, Liberalism, and Democracy 367 13.1 Overlaps 367 13.2 An Unfortunate Timing 370 13.3 Property and Possessive Individualism 376 13.4 Liberalism Defined 379

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13.5 Liberal Democracy

383

13.6 Democracy within Liberalism

386

13.7 Democracy without Liberalism

390

14. Market, Capitalism, Planning, and Technocracy

399

	14.1 What Is Planning? 399
	14.2 What Is the Market? 405
	14.3 Capitalism, Individualism, Collectivism 410
	14.4 Market Socialism 417
	14.5 Democratic Planning 425
	14.6 Democracy, Power, and Incompetence 428
	14.7 The Role of the Expert 431
	14.8 The Government of Science 434

15. Another Democracy?

450

	15.1 The Good Society of Rousseau and Marx 450
	15.2 Democracy and the State in Marx and Lenin 456
	15.3 Popular Democracy 467
	15.4 The Theory of Democratic Dictatorship 470
	15.5 Democracy and Demophily 474
	15.6 The War of Words 479

16. The Poverty of Ideology

491

	16.1 The Exhaustion of Ideals 491
	16.2 Inevitables and Evitables 497
	16.3 The Witch--Hunting of Ideas 498
	16.4 Novitism and Beyondism 503
	16.5 Epilogue 506

Name Index

51

Subject Index

523

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Publication Information: Book Title: The Theory of Democracy Revisited. Contributors: Giovanni Sartori - author. Publisher: Chatham House. Place of Publication: Chatham, NJ. Publication Year: 1987.