Democracy and Democratic Theory

Due Date Following the completion of Unit 11 (approximately week 16 or 26 of the suggested study schedules) Weighting 50% of the final grade for the course Instructions Write an essay of 15 to 20 pages (3,7505,000) words on one (1) of the following topics, unless you have specific permission from your tutor to do otherwise. The final research essay allows you to further develop a particular interest in any one of the issues raised in the course. You are expected to engage the course materials wherever appropriate, as well as incorporate references from outside the course material, such as those listed in the study guide references lists. Before you complete this assignment, please read Legal Notes and Regulations . Selected Authors Write a research essay critiquing, defending, or evaluating the theories of one of the following authors: John Dryzek Iris Marion Young Seyla Benhabib Carole Pateman Mark Kingwell You may also write about one of the following topics associated with a group of authors: Associative democracyespecially. Paul Hirst, Joshua Cohen, and Joel Rogers Minimal democracyFriedrich von Hayek, Joseph Schumpeter, Max Weber, and Adam Przeworskidefended against other models. This topic should also include a discussion of Ian Shapiros theory of democracy as a means of managing power relations to minimise domination. Deliberation about Public Policy and Governance Deliberative forms of governance are on the rise worldwide, as governments, businesses and not-for-profit organisations seek to engage with their constituents. Empirical research on these deliberative experiments is beginning to emerge. Using models provided in Chapters Five and Six of Why Deliberative Democracy?, in Volume 28, Issue 3 of Policy and Society (2009) in the Athabasca University Library journal databases, in John Dryzeks Foundations and Frontiers of Deliberative Governance, and in sources listed in the References section of Unit 6, write about the uses of, and/or lessons learned from, deliberation in a particular policy area, such as health care or health care reform, electoral reform, truth commissions, or environmental policy. 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. Plato versus Democratic Theory The most famous objection to democracy, immortalised by Plato, is that democratic decisions are likely to be worse than decisions made by those better qualified by virtue of their knowledge. Can modern models of democracy respond to this criticism? If so, which models respond the best? For example, can deliberative democracy, with its stress on reasongiving, make better decisions than a philosopher king? Can a philosophical approach like Tullys public philosophywhich asks us to identify ourselves in terms of relations of power, pragmatics of knowledge validity (games of truth), and practices of subjectivisationbe an answer to Platos criticism? In other words, can Foucaults approach be a theoretical justification for democracy? Indigenous and Post-colonial Struggles, and Multinational Democracy Examine a particular struggle for recognition, distribution, or accommodation in Canada, the Third World, or elsewhere around the world. Pay particular attention to (a) the multiplicity of ways in which individuals or groups have been blocked from questioning or entering into dialogue about norms of recognition and governance; (b) how such struggles and conflicts for recognition are, or can be, undertaken; (c) how these struggles are carried over into negotiations, which test and extend the limits imposed upon civic freedom; and (d) whether the counter-hegemonic practices identified by De Sousa Santos and Avritzer, or the civic or glocal practices identified by Tully, are present and, if not, whether they are feasible in this context. Finally, conclude your observations with (e) an assessment about the effects of struggles for recognition on the quality of democracy in the society in which the struggle is situated. Has the society become more democratic as a result? Submission Instructions Submit your completed assignment to Assignment 4: Final Research Essay – Submissions for assessment (submission link will be available upon your course contract start date). Important Once you submit the assignment for grading, your submission is final. To resubmit the assignment, you must obtain special permission from your instructor. Please name your file using the following template: ___ Examples: COMP101_Assignment1_DoeJane_1234567 COMP101_Assignment1_file1_DoeJane_1234567 COMP101_FinalAssignment_DoeJane_1234567