Chapter 3: The Value of Democracy
For our third chapter, we will venture into the field of Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
Democracy has become the dominant form of government in the West. While celebrated by many philosophers, others have been very critical of democracy.
Your assignment is to use the philosophical discussion on democracy to evaluate the form of government of a state with which you are familiar. You may choose any state! In order to perform this evaluation, take either a positive or a critical stance towards democracy. Independently of whether your stance is positive or critical, you should present two arguments in favour of your stance and discuss at least one argument that may seem to count against your stance. So if you choose to argue against democracy, you should present two separate arguments against democracy and show why an argument that has been presented in favour of democracy is mistaken.
To get you started, there are some key texts and arguments on democracy below that you can use. You are of course free to develop your own argument or find arguments through independent research as well.
Send your answers to ucg@rug.nl and we will have an expert provide feedback within two weeks.
| Title | Date |
|---|---|
| detoqueville-tyranny-of-the-majority.pdf | 28 November 2018 |
| kant-on-the-common-saying--this-may-be-true-in-theory-but-it-does-not-apply-in-practice.pdf | 28 November 2018 |
| lenin-bourgeois-and-proletarian-democracy.pdf | 28 November 2018 |
| mill-considerations-on-representative-government.pdf | 28 November 2018 |
| rousseau-the-general-will.pdf | 28 November 2018 |