ABSTRACT
Hannah Arendt consistently referenced the generational aspects of citizenship, often calling attention to our inheritance of a specific world with a definite history, one which we are not free to change at will, but must accept and work within. Current work in philosophy has taken up both threads (economic and environmental), trying to work out the general scope of intergenerational justice claims, what makes them special, how far they extend, and so on. Democracy is obviously related to legitimacy, consent and authority, and so a consequentialist might like democracy just because it can work pretty well to maintain stability. Sovereignty refers to the quality of being self-sufficiently self-determining. Intergenerational dynamics could theoretically be incorporated but pose a challenge to deliberative theories then because of the fact that not all potentially affected by the decision could possibly be included in the discussion. Democracy is legitimate because it strives not just for majority rule, but for openness and rationality.
