Politics, Philosophy and Economics 6 (3):329-353 (2007)
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Abstract |
A conception of legitimacy is at the core of normative theories of democracy. Many different conceptions of legitimacy have been put forward, either explicitly or implicitly. In this article, I shall first provide a taxonomy of conceptions of legitimacy that can be identified in contemporary democratic theory. The taxonomy covers both aggregative and deliberative democracy. I then argue for a conception of democratic legitimacy that takes the epistemic dimension of public deliberation seriously. In contrast to standard interpretations of epistemic democracy, however, the conception I put forward avoids procedure-independent standards of correctness. Instead, it relies on a procedural social epistemology and defines legitimacy entirely in terms of the fairness of procedures. I call this conception of democratic legitimacy `Pure Epistemic Proceduralism'. I shall argue that it should be preferred over `Rational Epistemic Proceduralism', the conception of legitimacy that underlies the standard interpretation of epistemic democracy. Key Words: legitimacy • deliberative democracy • epistemic democracy • social epistemology.
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DOI | 10.1177/1470594X07081303 |
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References found in this work BETA
Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy.Jürgen Habermas (ed.) - 1996 - Polity.
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Citations of this work BETA
Plural Voting for the Twenty-First Century.Thomas Mulligan - 2018 - Philosophical Quarterly 68 (271):286-306.
Pure Epistemic Proceduralism.Fabienne Peter - 2008 - Episteme: A Journal of Social Epistemology 5 (1):33-55.
Constitutional Experiments: Representing Future Generations Through Submajority Rules.Kristian Skagen Ekeli - 2009 - Journal of Political Philosophy 17 (4):440-61.
What is Democratic Reliability? Epistemic Theories of Democracy and the Problem of Reasonable Disagreement.Felix Gerlsbeck - 2018 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 21 (2):218-241.
Pragmatism, Inquiry and Political Liberalism.Matthew Festenstein - 2010 - Contemporary Political Theory 9 (1):25-44.
View all 27 citations / Add more citations
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Contestation and Deliberation Within: Dryzek, Goodin, and the Possibility of Legitimacy.Joshua W. Houston - 2009 - Social Philosophy Today 25:241-253.
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