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An Epistemic Defense of Democracy: David Estlund's Democratic Authority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2012

Elizabeth Anderson
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Abstract

In Democratic Authority, David Estlund (2008) presents a major new defense of democracy, called epistemic proceduralism. The theory claims that democracy exercises legitimate authority in virtue of possessing a modest epistemic power: its decisions are the product of procedures that tend to produce just laws at a better than chance rate, and better than any other type of government that is justifiable within the terms of public reason. The balance Estlund strikes between epistemic and non-epistemic justifications of democracy is open to question, both for its neglect of the roles of non-epistemic values of equality and collective autonomy in democracy, and for the ways his use of the public reason standard overshadows empirically based epistemic arguments for democracy. Nevertheless, Estlund presents telling critiques of rival theories and develops a sophisticated alternative that illuminates some central normative features of democracy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Episteme , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , February 2008 , pp. 129 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

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