Flashcards
UNANIMOUS DIRECT DEMOCRACY
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- 1There is, in theory, a solution to the problem which has been posed, and this fact is in itself quite important. However, the solution requires the imposition of impossible restrictive conditions which make it only applicable to a rather bizarre variety of actual situations. What is this solution?Unanimous direct democracy, the simplest form of democratic state
- 2Under unanimous democracy...?each member of society wills freely every law which is actually passed, hence he is only confronted as a citizen with laws to which he has consented. Since a man who is constrained only by the dictates of his own will is autonomous, it follows that under the directions of unanimous direct democracy, men can harmonize the duty of autonomy with the commands of autonomy.
- 3However, how ca even this limiting case be argued not to be genuine?Since each man is obeying himself, and hence is not submitting to a legitimate authority
- 4However, how is this case different from the prepolitical state of self-determination?For the authority to which each citizen submits is not that simply of himself, but that of the entire community taken collectively.
- 5Who are the laws issued in the name of?the sovereign, which is the total population of the community
- 6What is the power which enforces the law (should there be any citizen who, having voted for a law now resists its application to itself)?The power of all, gathered together into the police power of the state
- 7So, what happens to the moral conflict between duty and interest which arises from time to time within each man?It is externalised, and the voice of duty now speaks with the authority of law. Each men encounters his better self in the form of the state, for its dictates are simply the laws which he has, after due deliberation, willed to be enacted
- 8Unanimous direct democracy is feasible only...?so long as there is substantial agreement among all the members of a community on the matters of major importance.
- 9By the rule of unanimity...?a single negative vote defeats any motion. The slightest disagreement over significant questions will bring the operations of the society to a halt. It will cease to function as a political community and fall into the condition of anarchy, or at least into the condition of non-legitimacy, as a de facto government may of course emerge and take control
- 10However, what should it not be thought?That unanimous direct democracy requires for its existence a perfect harmony of the interests or desires of the citizens. It is perfectly consistent with such a system that there be sharp, even violent oppositions within the community, perhaps of an economic kind. The only necessity is that when the citizens come together to deliberate on the means for resolving such conflicts, they agree unanimously on the laws to be adopted. For example, a community may agree unanimously on some principles of compulsory arbitration by which economic conflicts are to be settled.
- 11What about if an individual feels they are personally disadvantaged by their application in a particular case?An individual who finds himself personally disadvantaged by their application in a particular case, however thinking the principles fair and knowing that he voted for them, he will hopefully acknowledge his moral obligation to accept their operation even though he would dearly like not to be subject to them. More specifically, this individual will have a moral obligation to obey the commands of the mediation board or arbritration council, whatever it decides, because the principles which guide it issue from his own will. Thus the board will have authority over him while he retains his moral autonomy
- 12Under what circumstances might a unanimous direct democracy actually function for a reasonable period of time without simply coming to a series of negative decisions?Wolff says there are two types of practical unanimous direct democracies:
First, a community of persons inspired by some all-absorbing religion or secular ideal might find itself so completely in agreement on the goals of the community and the means for achieving them that decisions could be taken on all major decisions by a method of consensus. Utopian communities in the 19th century and kibbutzim in the 20th are plausible instances of such a functioning unanimity. Eventually, the consensus dissolves and factions appeal, but in some cases the unanimity has been preserved for a period of many years
Second, a community of rationally self-interest individuals that it can only reap the fruits of cooperation by maintaining unanimous. So long as each member of the community remains convinced that the benefits to him from cooperation outweigh the benefits of serving his connection with the rest, the community will continue to function. For example, a classical laissez-faire economy ruled by the laws of the marketplace is supposedly endorsed by all the participants - 13What happens as soon as disagreement arises on important questions?unanimity is destroyed and the state must either cease to be de jure or else discover some means for settling disputed issues which does not deprive any member of his autonomy
- 14Furthermore, what happens when a society grows too large for convenience in calling regular assemblies?some way must be found to conduct the business of the state without condemning most of the citizens to the status of voiceless subjects
- 15What are the traditional solutions in democratic theory to these familiar problems?majority rule and representation
- 16What is, therefore, our next task?to discover whether representative majoritarian democracy preserves the autonomy which men achieve under a unanimous direct democracy.
- 17Since unanimous direct democracy can exist only under such limited conditions, it might be thought that there is very little point in discussing it. However, what are the two reasons which mean unanimous direct democracy has great theoretic importance?1. It is a genuine solution to the problem of autonomy and authority, which makes it unusual
2. More importantly, unanimous direct democracy is the ideal which underlies a great deal of classical democratic theory. Where unanimity is clearly thought to be the method of making decisions which is most obviously legitimate, other forms are presented as compromises with this idea, and the arguments in favor of them seek to show that the authority of a unanimous democracy is not fatally weakened by the necessity of using representation or necessity rule - 18What is one evidence for the theoretical primacy of unanimous direct democracy?that fact that in all social contract theories, the original collective adopting the social contract is always a unanimous decision made by everyone who can later be held accountable to the new state. The assumption that unanimity creates a de jure state is usually not even argued for with any vigor as it seems to most democratic theorists perfectly obvious
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- Flashcards on UNANIMOUS DIRECT DEMOCRACY, created by Phoebe Malone on 04/06/2019.
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