POSC 1000U Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Liberal Democracy, Energistics, Direct Democracy
Document Summary
Liberal democracy develops out of a number of important social and economic changes: ld rests on (ld emerges from): A concept of individual liberty and responsibility. A radical narrowing of the scope of political life: renaissance cultural movement with emphasis on the active judgment of the citizen/individual = movement to humanism. Democracy means a form of government in which people rule = demos (people) + In order for market inequalities to exist, they cannot be subject to democratic deliberation and debate. Liberal democracy key aspects: liberal democracy can be defined and understood on the basis of (a) its understanding of freedom and (b) its understanding of democratic participation (a) freedom and liberty in liberal democracy: Starts by creating a strict binarism or distinction between the private sphere (personal life of individuals, the family, civil society autonomous from the state, religion, the market economy) and the public sphere (political society, the state, government policies)