POLI 470: Democratic Theory and Practice (Rev. C2) Report a Broken Link

In this course we ask which modes of thinking about democracy are most appropriate and effective for answering the following questions: Is true democracy an ancient ideal that is only realisable in small communities? Is it a modern ideal well-suited to mass societies characterised by diverse and educated citizenry, pluralism, and advanced technology? Is the pragmatic polity a stable practice and a satisfactory ideal for the whole world? Is it an unstable compound of capitalism, liberalism, and democracy that is mired in contradiction and likely to fail? Is democracy just an instrument for securing other valued goods, such as liberty, non-violence, prosperity, and certain kinds of legal equality? Does it possess sufficient intrinsic merit to be valued as an end in itself?

Unit 1: The Concept of Democracy: Universally Valued, Essentially Contested


Dahl, R. A. 1998. "What Is Democracy?" In On Democracy (pp. 35–43). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Lively, J. 1975. "The Meaning of Democracy." In Democracy (pp. 8–51). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Reeve, A. 2007. "New Introduction." In Democracy, by J. Lively (pp. 1–12). Essex: ECPR Press.
Connolly, W. E. 1983. "Essentially Contested Concepts in Politics." In The Terms of Political Discourse (2nd ed., pp. 10–35). Oxford: Martin Robertson.

Unit 2: Classical Models: Ancient Democracy to Early Modern Republicanism


Constant, B. 1988. "The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns." In Political Writings, translated and edtied by Biancamaria Fontana (pp. 309–328). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Machiavelli, N. 2008. "Book I, Chapters 1–12." In Discourses on Livy, translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella (pp. 19–56). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Unit 3: The Second Coming of Democracy: Liberal and Radical Responses to Modernity


Pateman, C. 1983. "Feminism and Democracy." In Democratic Theory and Practice, edited by Graeme Duncan (pp. 204–217). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Unit 4: Liberal Democracy Under Modern Capitalism: Pluralist and Elitist Models


Shapiro, I. 2003. "Chapter 3: Power and Democratic Competition." In The State of Democratic Theory (pp. 35–55). Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Unit 10: Democracy and Globalisation


Saward, M. 2000. "Chapter 2: A Critique of Held." In Global Democracy: Key Debates (pp. 32–46). New York: Routledge.
Dryzek, J. 2006. "Three Kinds of Democracy." In Deliberative Global Politics (pp. 148–164, 172). Cambridge: Polity Press.

Unit 11: Possible Futures


Zakaria, F. 2003. "Illiberal Democracy" In The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy and Home and Abroad (pp. 89–118). New York: Norton.
De Sousa Santos, B., and L. Avritzer. 2005. "Introduction: Opening Up the Canon of Democracy." In Democratizing Democracy: Beyond the Liberal Democratic Canon, edited by Boaventura de Sousa Santos (pp. xxxiv–lxxiv). London: Verso.
Tully, J. 2008. "Two Meanings of Global Citizenship: Modern and Diverse." In Global Citizenship Education: Philosophy, Theory, and Pedagogy, edited by Michael A. Peters, Alan Britton, and Harry Blee (pp. 15–39). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Kingwell, M. 2012. "Throwing Dice: Luck of the Draw and the Democratic Ideal." PhaenEx, Vol. 7, No. 1 (pp. 66–100).