Democratic theory (BST200)

When the students have completed the course, they should have acquired knowledge, skills and competence in the following areas:

(1) Knowledge

• The students should be able to set out central arguments for and against democracy in general, and different forms of democratic political systems in particular
• The students should have acquired knowledge about central theories of democracy, and they should be able to consider how these theories have different implications with regard to the design of basic political and legal institutions
• The students should be able to set out the main characteristics of liberal democracies and constitutional democracies

(2) Skills

• The students are expected to be able to apply insights from democratic theory in order to critically evaluate alternative ways of designing political and legal institutions in democratic political systems 

(3) Competence

• The students are expected to use the knowledge and skills they have acquired in order to consider and discuss how political and legal institutions should be organised in modern constitutional democracies

Course teacher(s)

Course teacher:

Course coordinator:

Pensum

Brennan, J. (2016). Against democracy. Princeton University Press.

Dahl, R. A. . (1989). Democracy and its critics. Yale University Press.

Scwartzberg, M. (2014). Counting the many : the origins and limits of supermajority rule. Cambridge University Press.

Richard J. Arneson. (2003). Democratic Rights at the National Level. I T. Christiano (Red.), Philosophy and democracy [electronic resource] : an anthology (s. 1 online resource (370 p.)). Oxford University Press.

Christiano, T. (2015). Voter Ignorance Is Not Necessarily a Problem. Critical Review, 27(3-4), 253–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/08913811.2015.1111669

Downs, A. (1957). An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy. Journal of Political Economy, 65(2), 135–150. https://doi.org/10.1086/257897

Somin, I. (1998). Voter ignorance and the democratic ideal. Critical Review, 12(4), 413–458. https://doi.org/10.1080/08913819808443511

Ekeli, K. (2012). The Political Rights of Anti-Liberal-Democratic Groups. Law and Philosophy, 31(3), 269–297. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10982-011-9122-1

Held, D. (1996). Models of democracy (2nd ed.). Polity Press.

Carol Pateman. (2003). Participation and Democratic Theory. I I. Shapiro, R. A. Dahl, & J. A. Cheibub (Red.), The Democracy sourcebook (s. 40–47). MIT Press.

Joseph Schumpeter. (2003). Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. I I. Shapiro, R. A. Dahl, & J. A. Cheibub (Red.), The Democracy sourcebook (s. 5–11). MIT Press.

Adam Przeworki. (2003). A Minimalist Conception of Democracy. I I. Shapiro, R. A. Dahl, & J. A. Cheibub (Red.), The Democracy sourcebook (s. 12–17). MIT Press.

Ekeli, K. S. (2004). Hvem skal vokte vokterne? Modeller for håndheving av konstitusjonelle lover. Tidsskrift for Rettsvitenskap, 04-05, 548–579.

Jon Elster. (1988). Introduction. I R. Slagstad & J. Elster (Red.), Constitutionalism and democracy (s. 1–9). Cambridge University Press.

Aanund Hylland. (1994). Konstitusjonell treghet. Bør noen saker være unndratt flertallets kontroll? I K. Midgaard & B. E. Rasch (Red.), Representativt demokrati : spilleregler under debatt (Bd. 3, s. 185–208). Universitetsforl. http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2010050505084

Ronald Dworkin. (2003). A Bill of Rights for Britain. I I. Shapiro, R. A. Dahl, & J. A. Cheibub (Red.), The Democracy sourcebook (s. 217–220). MIT Press.

Ekeli, K. S. (2019). Politisk uvitenhet, stemmeretten og velgeres moralske ansvar. Norsk filosofisk tidsskrift, 54(03), 151–166. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1504-2901-2019-03-04