Description
Instructions
Select an area of democratic theory that interests you from the list of essay topics provided in Assignment 4. Write a 2 to 3 page (500–750 word) research proposal outline and bibliography on this topic.
Be sure to indicate exactly which topic you are choosing, and to explain your choice of sources, either in the body of your proposal, or by way of annotations to your bibliography. List at least six (6) sources that are not included in the course materials.
Pluralism and Democracy
An important theme in contemporary democratic theory, as exemplified by Boris DeWiel, Avigail Eisenberg, William Connolly, Chantal Mouffe, and David Held, is that both the theoretical and practical appeal of democracy lies in its status as a meta-value or meta-narrative. “The idea of democracy is important because it does not just represent one value among many, such as liberty, equality or justice, but is the value that can link and mediate among competing prescriptive concerns†(Held 2006, 261). The link between the usefulness of democracy as a meta-value and the conditions of modernity and (postmodernity) are sometimes used to explain the success of democracy both in theory and in practice.
Nevertheless, these authors appear to differ considerably about what they think the implications of value pluralism are, and ought to be, for democratic practice. Write an essay about what you think the significance of pluralism is for democracy.