Equality Beyond Debate
John Dewey's Pragmatic Idea of Democracy

Links democracy with the process of overcoming severe social inequality, rather than with ideal forms of political debate.

Jeff Jackson (Author)

9781108428576, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 October 2018

310 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.57 kg

'… his consistently insightful exposition deserves a wide audience.' Samuel Bagg, The Review of Politics

While many current analyses of democracy focus on creating a more civil, respectful debate among competing political viewpoints, this study argues that the existence of structural social inequality requires us to go beyond the realm of political debate. Challenging prominent contemporary theories of democracy, the author draws on John Dewey to bring the work of combating social inequality into the forefront of democratic thought. Dewey's 'pragmatic' principles are deployed to present democracy as a developing concept constantly confronting unique conditions obstructing its growth. Under structurally unequal social conditions, democracy is thereby seen as demanding the overcoming of this inequality; this inequality corrupts even well-organized forums of political debate, and prevents individuals from governing their everyday lives. Dewey's approach shows that the process of fighting social inequality is uniquely democratic, and he avoids current democratic theory's tendency to abstract from this inequality.

Introduction
1. The democratic individual
2. The Hegelian development of Deweyan democracy
3. The pursuit of democratic political institutions
4. From deliberative to participatory democracy
5. Agonism, communitarianism, and cosmopolitanism
6. Educating democratic individuals
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Philosophy [HP]