Democratic Devices and Desires

by Geoffrey Brennan , Alan Hamlin

• ISBN13: 9780521630207
• ISBN10: 0521630207
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-04-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book offers a novel account of key features of modern representative democracy. Working from the rational actor tradition, it builds a middle ground between orthodox political theory and the economic analysis of politics. Standard economic models of politics emphasise the design of the institutional devices of democracy as operated by essentially self-interested individuals. This book departs from that model by focusing on democratic desires alongside democratic devices, stressing that important aspects of democracy depend on the motivation of democrats and the interplay between devices and desires. Individuals are taken to be not only rational, but also somewhat moral. The authors argue that this approach provides access to aspects of the debate on democratic institutions that are beyond the narrowly economic model. They apply their analysis to voting, elections, representation, political departments and the separation and division of powers, providing a wide-ranging discussion of the design of democratic institutions.

Table of Contents

List of figures	viii
Preface and acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	1	(16)
PART I Democratic desires
On human nature: beyond homo economicus	17	(17)
Moral dispositions	34	(17)
Economising on virtue	51	(16)
Political mechanisms	67	(20)
Mechanisms and dispositional choice	87	(11)
Problems of democratic politics	98	(31)
PART II Democratic devices
Voting and elections	129	(27)
Political representation	156	(29)
Political parties	185	(26)
The separation of powers	211	(22)
The division of power	233	(22)
Bibliography	255	(9)
Index	264