Fabienne Peter, “Democratic Legitimacy” (Routledge, 2011)
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What is democratic legitimacy and why is it philosophically puzzling?
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Hello everyone and welcome to the New Books and Philosophy channel of the New Books Network. My name is Robert Talise and I co host the channel with Carrie Figter. In our bi monthly podcast, we talk with philosophers about their newly published books. Today I'll be talking with Professor Fabian Peter about her new book. Democratic legitimacy. Which was published by Routledge. Fabienne is reader in philosophy at the University of Warwick. As a mode of social organization and a system of governance, democracy is hard to beat. In fact, right now there are people in the world who are struggling at significant risk for democracy. But democracy is also hard to love. For democracy requires us to sometimes accept
Policies, laws and decisions that we believe to be mistaken, suboptimal, imprudent, and even unjust. That is We sometimes find ourselves on the losing side of a Democratic vote. And when we lose, we must nevertheless live by the outcome that we opposed. Of course. Democracy does not require us to be happy with its results. And it allows us to criticize, protest. And under certain circumstances even defy its rulings. But most of the time We are required to accept the results of democratic decision making. Regardless of what our own individual judgments may be. Consequently, when democracy decides, even those who voted against the result are required to comply. And those who refuse to comply may be rightfully coerced into compliance.
This is what we mean when we talk about the legitimacy of democratically produced collective decisions. They have a moral claim on us. Even if we disagree with them. And this moral claim entitles democratic states to force compliance. What is the nature of this legitimacy? Is the simple fact that a majority voted for a particular decision sufficient to create for the minority a moral requirement to comply? What if the majority is misinformed, biased, bigoted, ignorant, deluded? Many contemporary democratic theorists have tried to explain the legitimacy of democratic outcomes by appealing to open public deliberation as a necessary precursor to voting. The idea is that democratic legitimacy derives not simply from the majority will.
But from the fact that the majority will was formed under conditions under which citizens were able to consider the reasons and arguments relevant to the issue at hand. Deliberative democracy then introduces a reason recognizing element into democratic politics. But we may ask whether this is a plausible conception of democracy. Perhaps it's too demanding to expect citizens to deliberate together. Fabian Peter thinks that deliberative democracy is a plausible ideal. Let's turn to the interview.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is democratic legitimacy and why is it philosophically puzzling?
0:00–5:29
2
How does Fabienne Peter critique the standard aggregative view of democracy?
5:29–11:50
3
Why do deliberative democrats argue that public deliberation is needed for legitimacy?
11:50–19:16
4
What is the difference between procedural and rational procedural accounts of legitimacy?
19:16–24:44
5
How does the book’s matrix combine aggregative, deliberative, and epistemic dimensions?
24:44–31:27
6
What role does ‘public reason’ play in Fabienne Peter’s theory of legitimacy?
31:27–39:00
7
Why does Peter reject strong epistemic claims that democracy must track truth?
39:00–46:23
8
What are Fabienne Peter’s next research projects after ‘Democratic Legitimacy’?
46:23–54:04
Speakers
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