Open access
SALVATION IN DEMOCRACY
Andrzej Sepkowski1
GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS – IDEAS, POLICIES
Publication language: Polish
Journal article
Transformations No. 1–2 (88–89) 2016, Publication date: 17 May 2016
Keywords: democracy, salvation, civil religion
Abstract Democracies need coercion primarily to take action without overly privileging the status quo. When individual interests come in, which gives every indication of being an irreconcilable conflict, a democratic polity must either reinforce the status quo by taking no action or by taking action, force or threatening (coercing) some of its citizens into situations or actions not in their interests. Majority rule is one standard mechanism for achieving a relatively fair form of democratic coercion. Democracies can undoubtedly settle some of the many conflicts through deliberation. Deliberation can help transform interests and reveal previously unrealized areas of agreement. It can also sharpen participants understandings of their conflicts. In a good democracy, large or small, the deliberative arena should ideally be equally open to all, and power – in the sense of the threat of sanction or the use of force – should not interfere with the impact of the better argument. At some point and in some issues, deliberation will not lead to agreement. Good deliberation will have opened areas of agreement and will have clarifed remaining areas of conflict. The participants will have come to understand their interests, including their conflicting interests, better than before deliberation. But material interests, and interests in one’s deepest values, cannot always be reconciled with the interests, material and ideal, of others. At this point, when conflict remains after good deliberation, a democracy has two choices – to remain with the status quo or to act, by coercing some to go along with others.
Uniwersytet Łódzki, Wydział Studiów Międzynarodowych i Politologicznych
E-mail: asepkowski@uni.lodz.pl