Disagreement and Legitimacy

Political Legitimacy and Democracy

The stability and functioning of any kind of political regime—including democratic or representative ones—relies on the combination of the capacity of rulers and government officials to use coercion and the development of political legitimacy. Political legitimacy can be described as people's recognition and acceptance of the validity of the rules of their entire political system and the decisi...

Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy

Joshua Cohen In this essay I explore the ideal of a 'deliberative democracy'.1 By a deliberative democracy I shall mean, roughly, an association whose affairs are governed by the public deliberation of its members. I propose an account of the value of such an association that treats democracy itself as a fundamental political ideal and not simply as a derivative ideal that can be explained in t...

Disagreement and Information Collection

This note shows that disagreement, in the sense of differing priors, may increase the incentives to collect information when two agents work on a joint project. The reason is that each agent believes that new data will confirm his own beliefs and thus ‘convince’ the other agents to do what the focal agent thinks is right.

Correction: Expanded HTA: Enhancing Fairness and Legitimacy

Legitimacy and Morality

The changes are of many different kinds. In the religious realm, the role of the Lutheran folk church that formerly was very influential in many parts of society has changed. The differentiation of society in Modernity diminished the immediate significance of religion outside a narrow religious sphere. Today one can see an increasing interest in religion but this does not mean a return to the r...