ABSTRACT
This chapter gives a more complete account of our theory of “democracy-against-domination” (introduced in chapter one). The best way to understand the normative purpose of democracy, we argue, is to prevent, resist, or ameliorate domination. A number of recent political theorists have contributed to this understanding of democracy, including Philip Pettit, Ian Shapiro, Iris Marion Young, and Michael Walzer. To demonstrate the potential of this approach, we contrast it with two other leading schools of democratic thought: deliberative democracy and agonistic democracy. Democracy-against-domination is a more promising general theory of democracy than either because it applies to a wider range of political circumstances. Both deliberative democracy and agonistic democracy are better understood as partial democratic theories, identifying approaches and strategies to specific circumstances and situations. Democracy-against-domination clarifies the scope of their application and their relationship to each other.
