Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: On Liberty, Joseph Schumpeter, Harm Principle
15 May 2020
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Forum model of democracy: emphasizes deliberation, equal influence = equal opportunity to participate in discussion, voting reflects wants after they have been changed by reasoning. Our democracy is not a forum: powerful private interests dominate our discussions, political market in which money generates unequal influence, formal political equality combines with large economic inequalities. Instrumental reason #2: better citizens: active citizen engagement (forum model only, develop citizens" skills in making judgments, the focus is not the decisions that get made but the type of person that democracy is likely to produce. Instrumental reason #3: perceived legitimacy: democratic decisions tend to be perceived as legitimate by the people, this makes political decisions more stable and lest costly to enforce. What on liberty is about: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual. mill, on liberty, chapter 1, para.
