PHIL-P 145 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Deliberative Democracy
Document Summary
Government for the people is the idea that the citizens should benefit from government and not vice versa. A benevolent dictatorship is one that posses a single entity with absolute power who regardless governs in the interests. In a direct democracy the electorate votes on issues and policies and not candidates. Meaning every issue is handled by the entire electorate. Representative democracies consist of citizens voting for a candidate to represent them at the governmental level. Plato believed making important decisions regarding the state takes judgement and skill and should be left to the experts. Rousseau suggested that states have an official censor who would solely encourage people to act in accordance with popular morality. The censor would enforce and discourage certain behaviours, essentially upholding and clarifying where necessary, public morality. Rousseau believed each state should be run by civil religion which consists of three parts.
