democracy unbound...

how should modern democracies be governed? should the public’s business be conducted largely by elected representatives and professional administrators? or, should citizens participate much more in making laws and policies and implementing them? should the machinery of democracy simply tally the preferences and interests of citizens, or should it facilitate deliberations that inform and enlarge their views? dogmatic answers—for example that representative government is the only realistic form of modern government or that the only real democracy is a participatory one—now common in professional democratic theory and public discourse thwart the quest for practices that would better vindicate our fundamental democratic values. these dogmas, furthermore, prevent us from solving—sometimes even from recognizing—major political dilemmas of our time. maintaining an open disposition toward a wide range of political practices can help citizens and leaders address those problems and deepen our democracy at the same time. citizens’ welfare and the health of their democracies would be better served by a pragmatic public philosophy in which a wide range of political institutions are justified by their capacity to solve social problems in ways that secure individuals’ welfare and autonomy. my current book project, democracy unbound develops that pragmatic conception of democracy. pragmatic democracy begins with the basic presumption that governments are democratic insofar as they protect citizens’ interests effectively, treat them as equals, and provide opportunities for them to participate in public decision-making and action. unlike most theories of democracy, however, pragmatic democracy does not prescribe a specific political institutions such as representation or deliberation to achieve these goals. instead, it recognizes that no single set of institutions and political practices best advances these ends for all issues and circumstances. some issues are appropriately addressed by experts, while others call for broad and direct citizen engagement. rather than offering a single blueprint, democracy unbound provides conceptual and practical tools of democratic theory and institutional design to help political scientists, policy makers, and citizen activists understand the feasible and desirable range of decision-making processes// archon fung