Introduction

Democracies are quite varied political arrangements, and the adjective ‘democratic’ can be applied to associations, individuals, institutions, and ideals. For practical and for philosophical reasons, we believe it best to centre this collection on problems of ethics and public policy that arise in democracies, and on democratically-informed or democratically-sensitive principles, broadly conceived. The absence of a unifying democratic view is furthermore motivated by theoretical considerations pertaining to the conceptual structure of democracy. Nonetheless, democratic governments are committed to the belief that all citizens are, in principle, entitled to participate in government, and this makes democracies different from other forms of government, in which wealth, virtue, sex, religion, or parentage is thought to justify limiting political participation to a few, select, individuals. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.