Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Joseph Schumpeter, Equal Opportunity
27 Apr 2018
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Lecture 8 - Why Democracy? Intrinsic and Instrumental
Reasons
REQUIRED READING: Wolff, Introduction to Political Philosophy, Chapter 1, pp. 77-103
Key features of Modern Representative Democracy
• Universal rights to vote & stand for office
• Elected representatives make decisions
• Elections are free, frequent, and fair
• Freedom of speech; independent media
• Freedom of association
• Independent judges
Two Types of Reasons for Valuing Democracy
1. Intrinsic reasons
• Something in itself that makes democracy good
• Intrinsically good
2. Instrumental reasons
• Will produce better results
Intrinsic Reasons
Reason #1: Freedom as Autonomy
• Auto = self, nomos = law or rule
• Autonomy = giving laws to oneself
• Democracy embodies a commitment to freedom or self-rule
• Democracy is a form of autonomy
• Individuals ruling themselves
Rousseau on Self-Rule
• Freedom is not the capacity to do what we want
• Freedom is obedience to laws we give ourselves
• Freedom is self-government
• "The mere impulse of appetite is slavery, while obedience to a law which we prescribe to
ourselves is liberty"
• We can be coerced and free
• Coercion
• We are forced to comply with laws (or face consequences)
• Freedom
• In a democracy, laws are self-imposed
• So, coercion is compatible with freedom
• We can be "forced to be free"
• Government distinguished from Legislation
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