English | 336 pages | Princeton University Press; 1st edition (September 11, 2011) | 0691151237 | PDF | 3.36 Mb

Why democracy is the best way of deciding how decisions should be made

Pragmatism and its consequences are central issues in American politics today, yet scholars rarely examine in detail the relationship between pragmatism and politics. In The Priity of Democracy, Jack Knight and James Johnson systematically exple the subject and make a strong case f adopting a pragmatist approach to democratic politics―and f giving priity to democracy in the process of selecting and refming political institutions.

What is the primary value of democracy? When should we make decisions democratically and when should we rely on markets? And when should we accept the decisions of unelected officials, such as judges bureaucrats? Knight and Johnson exple how a commitment to pragmatism should affect our answers to such imptant questions. They conclude that democracy is a good way of determining how these kinds of decisions should be made―even if what the democratic process determines is that not all decisions should be made democratically. So, f example, the democratically elected U.S. Congress may legitimately remove monetary policy from democratic decision-making by putting it under the control of the Federal Reserve.

Knight and Johnson argue that pragmatism offers an iginal and compelling justification of democracy in terms of the unique contributions democratic institutions can make to processes of institutional choice. This focus highlights the imptant role that democracy plays, not in achieving consensus commonality, but rather in addressing conflicts. Indeed, Knight and Johnson suggest that democratic politics is perhaps best seen less as a way of reaching consensus agreement than as a way of structuring the terms of persistent disagreement.