Democracies give political power to the people. But why should they have a say in the operations of the state that governs them? Are democracies preferable to other forms of polity? Is democracy intrinsically good or does it merely serve an instrumental role? These and other related questions are explored in this collection. The forty readings, each accompanied by a brief overview to help guide students, include both classical and contemporary philosophical sources.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction by Robert B. Talisse Part I: Classic Sources 1. Pericles, Funeral Oration 2. Plato, Crito 3. Plato, Republic 4. Aristotle, Politics 5. Mencius, Mencius, 6. Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses 7. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan 8. Baruch Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise 9. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government 10. John Locke, Letter Concerning Toleration 11. Rousseau, Of the Social Contract 12. Edmund Burke, Speech to the Electors of Bristol 13. The Declaration of Independence 14. The Constitution of the United States 15. The Federalist Papers 16. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 17. Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America 18. Karl Marx, Estranged Labor 19. Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July 20. Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address 21. Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address 22. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty 23. John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government 24. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “The Solitude of Self” 25. W. E. B. Dubois, “Of the Ruling of Men” 26. John Dewey, “Democracy” 27. Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy 28. John Rawls, “The Idea of Public Reason Revisited” Part II: Contemporary Issues A. Democracy’s Value 29. Thomas Christiano, “The Authority of Democracy,” Journal of Political Philosophy 12.3(2004) 30. Richard Arneson, “Democracy is Not Intrinsically Just,” from Justice and Democracy: Essays for Brian Barry, ed. Keith Dowding, Robert Goodin, and Carole Pateman (Cambridge University Press, 2004) 31. Elizabeth Anderson, “Democracy: Instrumental Vs. Non-Instrumental Value,” from Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy (Christman and Christiano, eds.) B. Deliberation 32. Joshua Cohen, “Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy,” from The Good Polity, ed. Alan Hamlin and Phillip Petit (Blackwell, 1989) 33. Seyla Benhabib, “Toward a Deliberative Model of Democratic Legitimacy,” from Democracy and Difference, ed. Benhabib (Princeton, 1995) 34. David Estlund, “The Epistemic Dimension of Democratic Authority,” The Modern Schoolman, vol. LXXIV, no. 4 (1997). C. Voting 35. Helene Landemore, “Deliberation, Cognitive Diversity, and Democratic Inclusiveness: An Epistemic Argument for the Random Selection of Representatives,” Synthese 190.7(2013) 36. Claudio Lopez-Guerra, “The Enfranchisement Lottery,” Politics, Philosophy, & Economics 10.2(2010). 37. Jason Brennan, “Polluting The Polls: When Citizens Should Not Vote” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 87.4 (2009). D. Challenges and Problems 38. Iris Marion Young, “Activist Challenges to Deliberative Democracy,” Political Theory 29.5(2001): 670-690. 39. Robert B. Talisse “Polarization and Democratic Citizenship” 40. Dennis Thompson, “Representing Future Generations,” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 13.1 (2010): 17-37