Democracy Reader

Steven M. Cahn is professor emeritus of philosophy at the City University of New York Graduate Center.Robert B. Talisse is the W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.Andrew Forcehimes is associate professor of philosophy at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Cahn, Talisse, and Forcehimeshave put together a wide-ranging and thoughtfully crafted collection to explore the philosophical debates about democracy, from Plato’s challenge to the modern conflict between self-government and political equality. Each text comes with a crisp introduction that alerts the reader to the author’s central thesis. This volume will prove to be an ideal resource in every political philosophy classroom at the undergraduate and graduate level.

• PrefaceIntroduction by Robert B. TalissePART ONE: CLASSIC SOURCESPericles: Funeral OrationPlato: CritoPlato: RepublicAristotle: PoliticsMencius: The Works of MenciusNiccolò Machiavelli: DiscoursesThomas Hobbes: LeviathanBaruch Spinoza: Theologico-Political TreatiseJohn Locke: Second Treatise of Government John Locke: Letter Concerning Toleration Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Of the Social Contract Edmund Burke: Speech to the Electors of BristolThe Declaration of IndependenceThe Constitution of the United StatesAlexander Hamilton and James Madison: The Federalist Papers #10, #51, and #70The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the CitizenAlexis De Tocqueville: Democracy in AmericaKarl Marx: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844Frederick Douglass: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?Abraham Lincoln: Gettysburg AddressAbraham Lincoln: Second Inaugural AddressJohn Stuart Mill: On LibertyJohn Stuart Mill: Considerations on Representative GovernmentElizabeth Cady Stanton: The Solitude of SelfW. E. B. Dubois: Of the Ruling of MenJohn Dewey: DemocracyJohn Rawls: The Idea of Public Reason RevisitedPART TWO: CONTEMPORARY ISSUESA. JustificationRichard Arneson: Democracy is Not Intrinsically JustElizabeth Anderson: Democracy: Instrumental Vs. Non-Instrumental ValueB. DeliberationSeyla Benhabib: Toward a Deliberative Model of Democratic LegitimacyDavid Estlund: The Epistemic Dimension of Democratic AuthorityC. Voting Jason Brennan: Polluting The Polls: When Citizens Should Not VoteJulia Maskivker: Being a Good Samaritan Requires You to VoteD. ChallengesIris Marion Young: Activist Challenges to Deliberative DemocracyRobert B. Talisse: Polarization and Democratic Citizenship