An Argumentative Essay: Introduction to Political Theory, Democracy

This argumentative essay provides an introduction to political theory, focusing on the concept of democracy. The essay begins by defining democracy as the rule of the people, discussing its historical context and evolution. The main body of the essay explores key arguments in favor of democracy, including equality and fairness, freedom and autonomy, and mutual justification. The essay examines the importance of citizen participation, the role of representation, and the challenges of achieving true equality in practice. It references various scholars and their perspectives on democracy, such as Plato, Shapiro, and Howard-Hassmann, to support its arguments. The essay also addresses potential criticisms of democracy, such as the limitations of majority rule and the persistence of social and economic inequalities. The conclusion summarizes the complex nature of democracy and the importance of upholding its core values. The essay highlights the need for equal treatment and opportunities for all citizens within a democratic framework.

Argumentative essay on
introduction to political
theory, on the topic of
democracy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Democracy is the system of government where who population have a right to select their
representative and in the same way, current report also highlight the importance and argument
based upon democracy i.e. equality and fairness, freedom of autonomy and last is mutual
justification.
MAIN BODY
Democracy is all about to rule of the people, by the people and for the people and this
definition provided by the US President Abraham Lincoln. The word demos means people and
Kratos means rules overall, it is define as the 'rule by the people' might also been viable in the
small states, where citizens really set up to deliberate collectively. Moreover, Swift (2006)
stated that the time that political decision making would take and then the expertise also require
to do it well in order to make it non- starter. Further, author also state that the issue related to
political agenda is such that how to get people to bother to vote once in every four to five years.
In the similar way, the citizen of ancient Athens may also have been able to assemble, but they
also effectively gentlemen ease, in which the women and slaves who did the work.... argued that
there is a need to to keep all the principle consideration apart from the feasibility restriction
especially in the case of democracy, as it is quite hard to do so.
The key point about democracy is rule by the people and it is the procedure for making
the political decision because it directs the attention away from its content in which laws are
made. Thus, it is the good law made for the welfare of people. As per Plato, not every democracy
is about to making the wide political decision, rather it Is about the people who make their own
decision. Shapiro (2007) stated that decision making is directly democratic when the people as a
whole vote directly on the issues, even it is the indirectly democratic when they vote for the
representative who actually make a decision on their behalf. Author also explain that If
democracy is participatory then it is no so clear because it is possible only when voters decide
directly what the laws are without any participation in politics without clicking. As a result, they
d not need to inform anyone related to issues and not even engaged in any debate.
On contrary, Scheffler (2003) argued that if all the citizen are of same kind of
representative system and on other extreme, we could imagine a system where all representative
were subject to recall. Hence, this further provide a good as well as full democratic control over
their representative. As a result, these representative also turn into delegates and it is compulsory
1

to vote in anyways. Therefore, this is clearly represents that by improving the delivery of the
benefits of democracy in order to expanding the democracy reach, strengthening democratic
institution as well as encouraging the governmental transparency will help the citizens to stay
free in their countries. Moreover, author also state that democracy procedures may be
intrinsically valuable and it is so because it has an important value i.e. fairness. Further, Howard-
Hassmann (2018) stated that there are three intrinsic argument for the democracy I.e. equality
and fairness, freedom of autonomy and mutual justification.
As per the freedom as autonomy means that in non- democratic regimes there are some
selected groups i.e. Kings, autocrats which makes and enforce decision on the people. In this,
people are therefore, seem to be unfree as autonomy itself means that to live your life as per own
values and beliefs which means that people live by complying with self-rule. This arguments
shows that in democracy every participates live by own rules and no one live by another will so
that their autonomy is actually preserved because they themselves creates it. Jackson (2016)
argued that in that situation, there is no rights provided to minorities because it is observed that
those who win are known as majority and they actually create the law for minorities. Another
argument is such that many democrats can still argue that the democracy produces the most
autonomy. As majority in the country is consider one of the largest group as compared to the
bunch of aristocrats and as a result, they also produces the autonomy too. Author further
explained that just participating or creating the laws, even If there is an end up in the minority is
a promotion o an autonomy.
Another argument is related to equality and fairness which means that every citizen of the
country have a right to vote and present their views in front of others because democracy is the
fairest procedure for solving the political disagreements. But, Mansbridge (1999) stated that
providing an equal distribution of the resources, person should be responsible fro forming as well
as reforming the their own orientation. Therefore, the level o overall preference satisfaction in
which each person attain is the matter of individual responsibility which is not a social problem.
Author further stated that there are many ways of social and economic inequality which may turn
into the greater political influence. For instance, a person raised in the closed fundamentalist
community i.e. Amish who then loses their faith and as a result they move to city and also feel at
a loss as to how to satisfy the secular preference in order to provide equal treatment to all the
person.
2

This equality and fairness is also linked to the equality of welfare in which all the goods
are also distributed in equally ratio to men and women so that each member also enjoys the same
welfare. From the article, welfare to be preference satisfaction is good because the more an
individual is preference the more they will satisfied because of higher welfare. Arneson (1988)
also state that divergence from the equality is mostly raising because of lack of awareness among
society related to maintaining the distributive equality in the societies. The democracy also state
that this provide an equal opportunity to all the people so that people will share their views and
ideas in front of anyone.
But on the other side, there is a descriptive representation which means that it may denote
not only the visible characteristics such as color of skin but also shared experience in order to
understand the background of a person. Howard-Hassmann (2018) argued that this is not as
popular among the normative theorist but many democratic theorist also rejected it as well. Such
that Irene Diamond who was the first empirical political scientist who actually investigate in
depth about the action of women legislator. Such that Irene also found that in New Hemisphere,
who have a highest percentage of women legislator and among all, the most women legislator
did not see themselves as an acting for women. This also state that the primary function of the
democracy is to present the interest of the representation which should be judged through
deliberation and aggregation.
Baker and et.al., (1997) explained that many of political theory in ad outside of the liberal
tradition mainly focused on men as well as heads of the household and they are also concerned
with the regulations which should be governed the relations while entered in public spheres i.e.
Politics and civil society, but women were also not agreed to enter in the public sphere.
Therefore, earlier the rights are only provided to men and women have to struggle. Hence, many
contemporary theorist also deny that women should not enter in the public spheres and they also
extend their own rights which are prescribe in the theories of Justice to men and women equally.
Jackson (2016) explained that both social and economic inequalities are to be arranged in such a
way that helps to attached the position and offices which are open to all so that it will definitely
comply with fair equality of opportunity and next, to the greatest expected benefits of the least
advantages.
Such that John Rawls also assume that there is a distribution of the natural assets such
that those who are at the same level of talent and ability and also who have the the same
3

willingness to use them. Further, it should also have the same prospect of the success in the
initial place of the social system. Author also state that in order to attain equal opportunity there
should be no arbitrary as well as irrational use of a gender fro rewarding and benefits. Such that,
when fire services wishes to hire a new employees and this services are mostly operated by men
and that is why, it also reflect that there are some job where women are not applicable because
the equipment are basically designed for the male fire fighters that is why, the requirement
excludes all the women applicants. While on the other side, Singer (1972) argued that gender
neutral view is argued to ignore all gender inequalities built into the different definition of a
position in order to make men more suited to the role. There are many example that clearly
shows such that requirement in the working hours which also excludes those with caring
responsibility and as a result, it may fall disproportionately on women. Hence, author state that
this kind of discrimination is not suited and it reflect that people unfollow the law prescribe by
government.
Another argument is mutual justification which is also focused on the autonomy in which
there is a system where majority basically enforce the law on the minority and it may not be the
best expression of an autonomy and even many democrats also argue that autonomy is quite
better respected as compared to the mutual justification. Shapiro (2007) also state that democracy
is not about to voting but it is also for debating and discussion, such that it is the process of
mutual reason which is giving to all in which all majority as well as minority are included to
present their views. This type of argument is also associated with the deliverable democrats
whose main aim is to make a democracy more deliverable because it increases the participation
in all political debates i.e. political parties, unions, social movements and different community
groups. This is also concerned with citizen assemblies in which it bring all the randomly selected
citizens together in order to debate on any political issue so that action can be easily taken with
mutual concern.
Therefore, it is analyzed that equality and fairness is the best argument for a democracy
because it clearly show that people should be treat equally and they may easily present their
views and also included in any political occasion. Therefore, people should also related to one
another as equal and further must avoid relationship of the domination. Though, the relations
within a countries are generally stronger and across the countries but the global inequality may
be problematic as per the author view and that is why, there is a need to address the inequality of
4

own countries as well. Hence, every country have their own issue related to inequality such that
there are many cities where women are not allowed to present their views and did not provide
equal job opportunities at workplace. That is why, it is quite necessary to treat all the citizen in
equal manner so that they will also live with freedom.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report it has been concluded that democracy is a complex ideal
which stand at several different values and it is quite hard to work out which is relevant to what
and how to combine. That is why, government introduce democracy but there is a need to
comply with the laws because there are many cities where women did not get equal opportunities
as compared to men. Thus, report concluded three different argument such that equality and
fairness, freedom of autonomy and last is mutual justification. Among all report concluded
equality and fairness is the best argument.
5

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arneson, R. (1988). Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the
Analytic
Tradition, Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 77-93
Baker, J. and et.al., (1997)‘Practical reason and incommensurable goods’, in R. Chang (ed)
Incommensurability, incomparability, and practical reason, Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, pp 90-109. Anderson, ES (1999)‘What is the point of equality?’, Ethics,
vol 109, no 2, pp 287-337. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 4(2), 193-95.
Howard-Hassmann, R. E. (2018). Human rights and the search for community. Routledge.
Jackson, P. T., (2016). The conduct of inquiry in international relations: philosophy of science
and its implications for the study of world politics. Routledge.
Mansbridge, J. (1999). Should blacks represent blacks and women represent women? A
contingent" yes". The Journal of politics, 61(3), 628-657.
Scheffler, S., (2003). What is egalitrianism?. Philosophy & public affairs, 31(1), pp.5-39.
Shapiro, D. (2007). Is the welfare state justified?. Cambridge University Press.
Singer, P. (1972). Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 229-243.
Swift, A. (2006). Democracy, from Political philosophy : a
beginners' guide for students and politicians . Cambridge: Polity,
pp.179-223.
6