Introductory Essay Ten Questions About Democracy

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

Ten Questions about Democracy

JOHN HASNAS*

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644

QUESTION 1: WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644

QUESTION 2: WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF

DEMOCRACY? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645

QUESTION 3: WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645

QUESTION 4: WHAT IS THE PROPER RANGE OF COLLECTIVE CHOICE? . . . 646

QUESTION 5: WHAT IS THE ETHICAL JUSTIFICATION FOR DEMOCRACY? . . 647

QUESTION 6: HOW MUCH LIBERTY MUST BE SACRIFICED TO MAINTAIN

A WELL-FUNCTIONING DEMOCRACY? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648

QUESTION 7: DOES DEMOCRACY UNDERMINE COOPERATION? . . . . . . . . . 650

QUESTION 8: WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND

TRUTH? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650

QUESTION 9: DOES A COMMITMENT TO DEMOCRACY REQUIRE

DOUBLETHINK?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652

QUESTION 10: IS DEMOCRACY A RELIGION? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

* J.D., PhD., LLM., Professor of Ethics, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University

and Professor of Law (by courtesy) at Georgetown Law Center. The author wishes to thank Ben

Bronner, Peter Jaworski, William English, and Annette Hasnas of Georgetown University and Ann C.

Tunstall of Martin Pharmaceuticals for their insightful comments on a draft of this article, and Annette

and Ava Hasnas for acquainting him with the defects of democratic decision-making. © 2021, John

Hasnas.

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