IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v101y2007i03p443-458_07.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Democratic Theory and Political Science: A Pragmatic Method of Constructive Engagement

Author

Listed:
  • FUNG, ARCHON

Abstract

This article develops two conceptual tools to synthesize democratic theory and the empirical study of institutions. The first is a standard to assess conceptions of democracy called pragmatic equilibrium. A conception of democracy is in pragmatic equilibrium just in case the consequences of its institutional prescriptions realize its values well and better than any other feasible institutional arrangements across a wide range of problems and contexts. Pragmatic equilibrium is a kind of Rawlsian reflective equilibrium. The second is a method of practical reasoning about the consequences of alternative institutional choices that brings conceptions of democracy closer to pragmatic equilibrium. These two ideas are then applied to four conceptions of democracy—minimal, aggregative, deliberative, and participatory—and to two governance problems—deciding rules of political structure and minority tyranny—to show how each conception can improve through reflection on the empirical consequences of various institutional arrangements.

Suggested Citation

  • Fung, Archon, 2007. "Democratic Theory and Political Science: A Pragmatic Method of Constructive Engagement," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 101(3), pages 443-458, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:101:y:2007:i:03:p:443-458_07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S000305540707030X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daemen Josette, 2021. "What (If Anything) Can Justify Basic Income Experiments? Balancing Costs and Benefits in Terms of Justice," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 11-25, June.
    2. Murat Arsel & Malcolm Langford, 2015. "Forum 2015," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(4), pages 777-802, July.
    3. Kelly Gerard, 2021. "Interpreting Legitimation Through Participation: The ASEAN Civil Society Conference," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 432-445, March.
    4. Konow, James, 2008. "The Moral High Ground: An Experimental Study of Spectator Impartiality," MPRA Paper 18558, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Kelly Gerard & David Mickler, 2021. "Remaking the Regional: Legitimacy and Political Participation in Regional Integration," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 404-416, March.
    6. Laura Carmouze & Alan Sandry, 2020. "Complex Thinking and Computing Organization Facing Contingent Problems," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 401-419, June.
    7. Whetsell, Travis A, 2023. "On the Theory of the Pragmatic Public," SocArXiv 8ukmr, Center for Open Science.
    8. Sanjeev Vidyarthi & Charles Hoch, 2018. "Learning from groundwater: Pragmatic compromise planning common goods," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(4), pages 629-648, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:101:y:2007:i:03:p:443-458_07. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.