Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T05:43:45.328Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Deliberative Democracy and Authority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Mark E. Warren*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University

Abstract

The topic of authority only rarely figures into theories of deliberative democracy, no doubt owing to the widely held view that authority is inherently undemocratic. But deliberative democrats need a concept of authoritative decision making, not least because the scale and complexity of contemporary societies radically limit the numbers of decisions that can be made by deliberatively democratic means. I argue for an inherently democratic conception of authority, in large part by examining and rejecting the view—held by radical democrats, conservatives, and most liberals—that authority involves a surrender of judgment by those subject to authority. In contrast, I develop the view that authority, particularly in posttraditional contexts, involves a limited suspension of judgment enabled by a context of democratic challenge and public accountability. An important point is that democratic authority supports robust deliberative decision making by enabling individuals to allocate their time, energy, and knowledge to the issues most significant to them.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arendt, Hannah. 1961. Between Past and Future. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1982. Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy, trans. and ed. Beiner, Ronald. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, Benjamin. 1984. Strong Democracy. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Jean, and Arato, Andrew. 1992. Civil Society and Political Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Connolly, William. 1987. “Modern Authority and Ambiguity.” In Authority Revisited, NOMOS XXIX, ed. Pennock, J. Roland and Chapman, John W.. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Connolly, William. 1988. Political Theory and Modernity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Connolly, William. 1991. Identity/Difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Crozier, Michael, Huntington, Samuel, and Watanuki, Joji. 1975. The Crisis of Democracy. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert. 1970. After the Revolution? Authority in a Good Society. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert. 1989. Democracy and Its Critics. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
De Tocqueville, Alexis. 1969. Democracy in America, trans. Lawrence, George. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Dryzek, John. 1990. Discursive Democracy: Politics, Policy, and Political Science. Cambridge: the University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald. 1990. “Obligations of Community” In Authority, ed. Raz, Joseph. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Fishkin, James. 1991. Democracy and Deliberation. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Flathman, Richard E. 1980. The Practice of Political Authority. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, R. B. 1990. “On the Concept of Authority in Political Philosophy.” In Authority, ed. Raz, Joseph. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Gould, Carol. 1988. Rethinking Democracy: Freedom and Social Cooperation in Politics, Economy, and Society. Cambridge: the University Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1984. The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 1, trans. McCarthy, Thomas. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1987. The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 2, trans. McCarthy, Thomas. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1990. Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action. Lenhardt, Christian and Nicholsen, Sherry Weber trans. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1994. “Three Models of Democracy.” Constellations 1:110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. N.d. Facticity and Validity: Contributions to the Discourse Theory of Law and the Democratic Constitutional State. Cambridge: MIT Press. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Hardin, Russell. 1991. “Trusting Persons, Trusting Institutions.” In Strategy and Choice, ed. Zeckhauser, Richard J.. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hardin, Russell. 1992. “The Street-Level Epistemology of Trust.” Politics and Society 21 (December):505–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntington, Samuel. 1981. American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald. 1990. Culture Shift in Advance Industrial Societies. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, Kathleen. 1993. Compassionate Authority: Democracy and the Representation of Women. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kateb, George. 1992. The Inner Ocean: Individualism and Democratic Culture. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Luhmann, Niklas. 1979. Trust and Power: Two Works by Niklas Luhmann. Chichester: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Lukes, Steven. 1987. “Perspectives on Authority.” In Authority Revisited, NOMOS XXIX, eds. Pennock, J. Roland and Chapman, John W.. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Lyotard, Jean-François. 1988. The Differend: Phrases in Dispute, trans. Van Den Abbeele, George. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Manin, Bernard. 1987. “On Legitimacy and Political Deliberation.” Political Theory 15:338–68.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane. 1980. Beyond Adversary Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Nagel, Thomas. 1990. “Moral Conflict and Political Legitimacy.” In Authority, ed. Raz, Joseph. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Offe, Claus. 1985. “New Social Movements: Challenging the Boundaries of Institutional Politics.” Social Research 4:817–68.Google Scholar
Offe, Claus, and Preuss, Ulrich K.. 1991. “Democratic Institutions and Moral Resources.” In Political Theory Today, ed. Held, David. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Phelan, Shane. 1989. Identity Politics: Lesbian Feminism and the Limits of Community. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Raz, Joseph. 1987. “Government by Consent.” In Authority Revisited, NOMOS XXIX, ed. Pennock, J. Roland and Chapman, John W.. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Raz, Joseph. 1990a. “Introduction.” In Authority, ed. Raz, Joseph. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Raz, Joseph. 1990b. “Authority and Justification.” In Authority, ed. Raz, Joseph. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenblum, Nancy. 1987. “Studying Authority: Keeping Pluralism in Mind.” In Authority Revisited, NOMOS XXIX, ed. Pennock, J. Roland and Chapman, John W.. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Ian. 1994. “Three Ways to Be a Democrat.” Political Theory 22:124–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sirianni, Carmen. 1981. “Production and Power in a Classless Society: A Critical Analysis of the Utopian Dimensions of Marxist Theory.” Socialist Review 59:3382.Google Scholar
Sirianni, Carmen. N.d. Social Learning and Participatory Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Spragens, Thomas. 1990. Reason and Democracy. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Sunstein, Cass. 1991. “Preferences and Politics.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 20:334.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 1989. Sources of the Self. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Dennis. 1993. “Mediated Corruption: The Case of the Keating Five.” American Political Science Review 87:369–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1983. Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1992. “The Civil Society Argument.” In Dimensions of Radical Democracy, ed. Mouffe, Chantal. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Warren, Mark. 1992. “Democratic Theory and Self-Transformation.” American Political Science Review 86:823.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, Mark. 1994. “Nonfoundationalism and Democratic Judgment.” Current Perspectives in Social Theory 14:151–82.Google Scholar
Warren, Mark. 1995. “The Self in Discursive Democracy.” In The Cambridge Companion to Habermas, ed. White, Stephen K.. Cambridge: the University Press.Google Scholar
Warren, Mark. N.d. “What Should We Expect from More Democracy? Radically Democratic Responses to Politics,” Political Theory. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Wolff, Robert Paul. 1970. In Defense of Anarchism. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Yankelovich, Daniel. 1991. Coming to Public Judgment: Making Democracy Work in a Complex World. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 1990. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar