Rethinking Democratic Theory: The American Case

Abstract

According to all versions of democratic theory, however they may differ on the extent to which fully democratic institutions are thought to be practicable, “democracy” is about the authorship of collective decisions. People who are subject to laws are to be treated as if they willingly subjected themselves to such laws—to endorse their own personhood and to firmly ground a sense of collective agency. This ideal notion of authorship is of course not reducible to the actual making of decisions, particularly not in a system of representative government. Still, even democratic minimalists have suggested that at the very least this notion of expressive agency has to include some sense on the part of citizens that they can in different ways initiate political activity and influence public opinion. Thus it is basic to democratic theory that the idea and practices of democracy include some continual mediation between collective self-determination and the individual self-determination of particular citizens. It follows that some kind of equality of participation and discourse is needed for this mediation, so that citizens can feel that their own agency in political matters can potentially have an effect in the larger society.