ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author begins his argument by pointing out severe internal defects and inadequacies in the popular statistical reading of democracy. He constructs an account of democracy as government by the people, understood in the integrated, communal sense, as equals. If political equality is a matter of equal political power, both vertical and horizontal dimensions must figure in the accounting. The author distinguishes two interpretations: equality of impact and equality of influence. He argues that democracy, like almost any other form of government, involves collective action. Citizens of an integrated community must be encouraged to see moral and ethical judgment as their own responsibility rather than the responsibility of the collective unit; otherwise they will form not a democracy but a monolithic tyranny. The principle of independence has crucial consequences for the analysis of democracy. The author talks about the snake in the garden, the nasty problem supposed to be at the center of constitutional law.
