The Logic of Democracy: Reconciling Equality, Deliberation, and Minority Protection (Michigan Studies in Political Analysis) - Softcover

McGann, Anthony

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0472069497 ISBN 13: 9780472069491

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 2006

Synopsis

Democracy is proportional representation and majority rule - without checks and balances. Combining political philosophy, social choice theory and empirical political science, Anthony McGann shows that this combination not only uniquely satisfies the requirements of political equality, but also protects minorities and promotes deliberation. ""The Logic of Democracy"" offers a unified theory to explain two of the broadest questions in political science: What is democracy? And how does it work? McGann's reconciliation of the often-contradictory literatures on normative political philosophy, social choice and the empirical study of political institutions suggests answers to many of the outstanding problems prevalent in all three fields. ""The Logic of Democracy"" will appeal to all political science scholars. Its reexamination of democratic institutions will be of particular interest to students of political theory.

About this title

Review

"This ranks with Riker and Mackie as one of the most important works in democratic theory of the last thirty years. McGann slices through fashionable nonsense like a knife through hot butter."
--Iain McLean, Oxford University
-- (03/17/2006)

"In The Logic of Democracy Anthony McGann practices political science the way it should be done. He takes a difficult and important theoretical question, namely how we should interpret the possibility of majority-rule cycling, pursues it single-mindedly across the unhelpful barriers raised by established subspecialties and methodologies, and arrives at a set of non-obvious normative and empirical results. Will you agree with every argument he advances? Surely not. You will, however, benefit immensely from reading this exemplary book."
--Jim Johnson, University of Rochester
-- (04/03/2006)

"McGann brings a variety of theoretical arguments together to provide a coherent logic of majoritarian democracy and a wholehearted and comprehensive defense of majority rule. Notably, he finds virtue in what is commonly viewed as majority rule's vice--namely cycling--and he also shows that proportional representation, not first-past-the-post, is required for true majoritarianism. The book should be read not just by formal theorists but by a broad range of political science scholars and students."
--Nicholas R. Miller, University of Maryland

-- (03/23/2006)

About the Author

Anthony McGann is Assistant Professor of Political Science at University of California, Irvine.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0472069497
• ISBN 13: 9780472069491
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256