Contemporary republican concepts of democracy: common features and two ideal types

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Abstract

The revival of the republican political tradition is taking place against the background of the academic dispute between liberals and communitarians. Сommon values of modern republicans, namely, deliberativeness of the political process and civic virtues based on the idea of the common good are defined. Views on democracy of three authors of republican orientation – M. Sandel, K. Sunstein and F. Pettit are analyzed. It is shown that the existence of different directions within the republican tradition (one focuses on the development of common ethical ideas, and the other – on mixed government) has as its consequence the heterogeneity of republicans’ ideas on democracy. It is proposed to distinguish two ideal types of republican views on democracy – narrowly communitarian and essentially liberal, and to consider as criteria for typology (1) views on the highest social ideal and human rights, (2) the purpose of democratic discourses, (3) the role and significance of agreement with political decisions, (4) the role and significance of political participation and civic virtues. It is concluded that to date a unified republican theory of democracy has not yet been formed.

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About the authors

Nikolai A. Shaveko

Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: shavekonikolai@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5481-7425

Candidate of Sciences (Law), Senior Research Fellow

Russian Federation, Yekaterinburg

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