What do you think?
Rate this book
Political Equality: An Essay in Democratic Theory
The description for this book, Political Equality: An Essay in Democratic Theory, will be forthcoming.
271 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
34 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 28, 2011
I feel awful giving this book a three-star rating, because the first four chapters are really wonderful. Things begin to get off the rails when Beitz outlines his proposed "complex proceduralism". The problem is that the three "higher-order interests" - recognition, equitable treatment, and deliberative responsibility - that constitute his "regulative interests of citizenship" are ad hoc. He seems to sheepishly admit this at one point, but it's a real problem. Because they (as I understand his argument) have a weak a priori grounding, their application becomes suspect. This fear gets borne out in the subsequent chapters, in the second half of the book. Whereas the first half reads as a devastating analysis and critique of existing perspectives on democratic equality, the latter half is a much more loosely written piece that very imperfectly applies his conception to specific issues with respect to democratic institutionalization.
He for instance argues that PR, not the Westminster system, is compatible with his complex proceduralism. I have no beef with PR. I myself prefer PR. But Beitz does not, so far as I can tell, adequately deal with the problems of accountability inherent in PR systems, especially with respect to coalition-building. Maybe that's not his fault, as a good amount of research about these deficiencies in PR were published after Political Equality was published. But I'm reading this in 2011, not 1987, and I can't help but rate it accordingly.
Seriously, though, the first four chapters are awesome.
He for instance argues that PR, not the Westminster system, is compatible with his complex proceduralism. I have no beef with PR. I myself prefer PR. But Beitz does not, so far as I can tell, adequately deal with the problems of accountability inherent in PR systems, especially with respect to coalition-building. Maybe that's not his fault, as a good amount of research about these deficiencies in PR were published after Political Equality was published. But I'm reading this in 2011, not 1987, and I can't help but rate it accordingly.
Seriously, though, the first four chapters are awesome.
Displaying 1 of 1 review