Tag: Philip Pettit
Citizens’ assemblies provide an institutional foothold for republican political practices
Calls for a UK citizens convention to assess and rethink our current political and democratic arrangements have been frequently heard in the wake of the referendum on Scottish independence, held last autumn. John Grant argues that these conventions can be useful in providing an institutional foothold for republican ideas, which have struggled to find a policy […]
Taking democracy seriously demands that we identify and address the danger of oligarchy
Republican political theory has undergone a renaissance in recent years. Philip Pettit and Quentin Skinner have identified a certain understanding of liberty as central to republicanism and Pettit argues that we must make democratic institutions ‘contestatory’ to secure liberty in this sense. John McCormick, drawing on Machiavelli, argues that we need to be alert to […]
A response to Roger Scruton: no, democracy is not overrated
In a widely discussed article for the BBC’s ‘a Point of View’ series, the conservative Philosopher Roger Scruton argues that democracy is overrated, and that we should value equal freedom and the protection of human rights ahead of it. Philip Pettit of Princeton University argues that Scruton is wrong to distinguish between the three, and that democracy […]
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