Phd Thesis Summary: Democracy-as-fairness: Justice, Equal Chances and Lotteries

My dissertation lies primarily in the area of normative political philosophy, yet draws from sources as diverse as economics (the desiderata of social choice), moral philosophy (fairness in choosing between groups of people), and ancient history (use of lotteries in Athenian democracy) to challenge the widespread acceptance of majority rule. I argue that democracy is legitimate as a solution to coordination problems, but that it is only acceptable to all if it gives each at least a chance of getting at least some of what they want (chapter 1). Adopting a contractualist approach to the justification of decision procedures, I reject two popular arguments for majority rule. Firstly, it need not produce good outcomes, since for example it does not take account of intensities (chapter 2). Secondly, it is not necessarily fair to all parties: unless all have some chance of ending up in the winning coalition, those excluded have no reason to accept the process as fair (chapter 3). These arguments do not show that majority rule is always illegitimate, but they do suggest that there are some circumstances— such as when there is a permanent minority—where it is inappropriate. Here, we need some procedure that respects minorities. Chapters 4 and 5 develop one such proposal, termed 'lottery voting', in which a single vote is randomly selected to determine the outcome. Consequently, each individual is equally likely to be decisive (with a probability of 1/n) while the chance of each option winning is proportional to its level of support amongst voters. I consider various possibilities for the implementation of such a procedure in small group decision-making, including how it may be combined with judicial review or time limits on decisions, and rebut objections based on the possibility of extreme minorities winning (suggesting that this could be avoided by institutional checks, but may be unlikely given that voting behaviour is endogenous to the system and a system where any vote could win encourages responsible voting).