Democratic Society and Political Democracy

Abstract

Supposing for the sake of argument that there is a conception of political and social justice that is more appropriate for a democratic society, meaning by “democratic society” a social and political order that guarantees a certain form of moral equality to all citizens, under what conditions does a political democracy contribute to the emergence of such equality of status? To gain insight into this question, from the perspective of normative political theory, there is no need, it is argued, to replace the mainstream notion of competitive democracy with an alternative ideal of democracy, deliberative or participatory. Instead, we should seek to establish under what conditions a conception of social justice will be most likely to polarize the democratic competition. Keywords: deliberative democracy; participatory democracy; social justice.