University of Oslo The Faculty of Social Sciences Oslo Summer School in Comparative Social Science Studies 2017 Democracy and Justice Lecturer: Professor Ian Shapiro Sterling Professor of Political Science Henry R. Luce Director, MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies Yale University USA Main discipline: Political Science, Political Theory Dates: 24-28 July 2017 Course Credits: 10 pts (ECTS) Limitation: 25 participants Objectives The course objective is to introduce students to recent and contemporary debates about democracy and justice, explore the relations between them, and discuss their practical implications. These two subjects are not usually taught together, but in my view this is a mistake because they are in fact intimately related. As a theoretical matter, viable accounts of justice and democracy carry implications for one another because both rest on bedrock appeals to the idea of resisting domination. As a practical matter, no theory of justice will get very far in today s world if it is incompatible with democracy, and democracies that are not justice promoting lose legitimacy over time. The course does not assume prior knowledge of the literatures we discuss. University of Oslo The Faculty of Social Sciences
Classes We will meet for four hours each day. Session I will run from 10:15 am to 12:00 noon and Session II will run from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. Requirements Each student will be expected to attend all classes, do the required reading, and circulate response questions to two sets of the readings no later than 9:00 pm on the day before the relevant class. Each student will be expected to write a paper of approximately 7,500 words, due by Monday 25th September 2017, topic to be approved by the instructor. Reading material Readings are available in a Dropbox to which students will have access. COURSE OUTLINE Monday, July 24: Democracy vs. Justice We start with expositions of standard accounts of democracy and justice. Session I: Democracy We read Joseph Schumpeter s classic defense of democracy from Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy and discuss the standard Schumpeterian view that democracy has nothing to do with justice. Schumpeter, Joseph A. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Chapters 21 and 22. (33 Pages) Session II: Justice We discuss John Rawls s classic account of justice as fairness, which proceeds without reference to democratic considerations. Rawls, John. Collected Papers. Chapter 3, Justice as Fairness. (26 pages) Suggested readings: Shapiro, Ian. Democracy s Place. Chapter 5, Three Ways to be a Democrat. Shapiro, Ian. The Moral Foundations of Politics. Chapter 5, The Social Contract. Page 2 of 8
Tuesday, July 25: Integrating Democracy and Justice? We question the view discussed in the previous class and explore attempts to integrate these literatures. Session I: From Justice to Democracy We take up the limitations of thinking about justice in isolation from democracy by reference to Michael Walzer s Spheres of Justice, the first attempt at a democratic conception of justice. Walzer, Michael. Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality. Chapter 1, Complex Equality and Chapter 4, Money and Commodities. (62 pages) Session II: From Democracy to Justice We consider my alternative account of democratic justice. Shapiro, Ian. Democracy s Place. Chapter 8, Elements of Democratic Justice. (42 pages) Suggested readings: Shapiro, Ian. Political Criticism. Chapter 3, Political Theory and Connected Social Criticism. Shapiro, Ian. Democratic Justice. Chapter 4, Governing Children, and Chapter 6, Controlling Work. Page 3 of 8
Wednesday, July 26: Democracy and Tyranny By this point we will have established that plausible theories of democracy and justice involve commitments to the idea of resisting domination, both as a philosophical matter and as they are actually invoked in politics. Today s sessions zero in on the concept of non-domination. Session I: Democracy vs. Republicanism Drawing on Madison s classic defense of a non-tyrannical republic in The Federalist Papers and Dahl s critique of that view in A Preface to Democratic Theory, we explore the main debates about whether majoritarian democracy or republican separation of powers best protects against domination. Madison, James. The Federalist, No. 10. Madison, James. The Federalist, No. 14. Dahl, Robert A. A Preface to Democratic Theory. Chapter 1, Madisonian Democracy. (30 pages) Session II: Theories of Non-Domination Drawing on my essay On Non-domination, we elaborate on the place of a commitment to non-domination in theories of justice. Shapiro, Ian. On Non-Domination. University of Toronto Law Journal, 62 (2012): 293-335. (42 pages) Suggested reading: Dahl, Robert A. How Democratic is the American Constitution? Chapter 2, What the Framers Couldn t Know and Chapter 5, How Well Does the Constitutional System Perform? Page 4 of 8
Thursday, 27 July: Democracy, Distribution, & Institutions We take up the implications of the preceding class for matters of institutional design and distributive politics. Session I: Democracy and Constitutionalism Drawing on a chapter from my recent book, Politics Against Domination, we discuss the institutional implications of the theoretical arguments of the preceding class, with particular attention to majority rule and judicial review. Shapiro, Ian. Politics Against Domination. Chapter 4, Democracy Against Republicanism. (41 pages) Session II: Democracy and Distribution Drawing on my review essay of the literature on democracy and distribution, we discuss the surprising failure of democracy to ameliorate inequality historically, and the types of institutional reforms that might address this failure. Shapiro, Ian. The State of Democratic Theory. Chapter 5, Democracy and Distribution. (42 pages) Suggested reading: Shapiro, Ian. Politics Against Domination. Chapter 3, The Stakes of Political Conflict. Page 5 of 8
Friday, July 28: Democracy in a Nondemocratic World Promoting democracy is integral to advancing the cause of justice, but how is that best pursued? That is the subject of the last two sessions. Session I: Transition to Democracy Drawing on my comparative work with Courtney Jung and Ellen Lust on democratic transitions in Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere, we discuss the possibilities for and obstacles to democracy promotion. Jung, Courtney, Ellen Lust-Okar, and Ian Shapiro. The Real World of Democratic Theory. Chapter 3, Problems and Prospects for Democratic Settlements. (63 pages) Session II: Democracy and Foreign Relations Drawing on a chapter of Politics against Domination, we discuss the literature on humanitarian intervention and the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect as this has played out from Kosovo to Libya and since. Shapiro, Ian. Politics Against Domination. Chapter 6, Resisting Domination Across Borders. (41 pages) Suggested reading: Shapiro, Ian. Politics Against Domination. Chapter 7, Politics Against Domination. Page 6 of 8
Reading list (The required selections are available on Dropbox) Dahl, Robert. A Preface to Democratic Theory. Chapter 1. Jung, Courtney, Ellen Lust-Okar, and Ian Shapiro. The Real World of Democratic Theory. Chapter 3. Madison, James. The Federalist Papers. No. 10 and 14. Rawls, John. Collected Papers. Chapter 3. Schumpeter, Joseph A. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Chapters 21 and 22. Shapiro, Ian. Democracy s Place. Chapter 8. Shapiro, Ian. On Non-Domination. University of Toronto Law Journal, 62 (2012): 293-335. Shapiro, Ian. Politics Against Domination. Chapters 4 and 6. Shapiro, Ian. The State of Democratic Theory. Chapter 5. Walzer, Michael. Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality. Chapters 1 and 4. Optional reading Dahl, Robert A. How Democratic is the American Constitution? Chapters 2 and 5. Shapiro, Ian. The Moral Foundations of Politics. Shapiro, Ian. Democratic Justice. Chapter 4. Shapiro, Ian. Democracy s Place. Chapter 5. Shapiro, Ian. Political Criticism. Chapter 3. Shapiro, Ian. Politics Against Domination. Chapters 3 and 7. Key books to purchase (or borrow at your library) Shapiro, Ian. Politics Against Domination. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2016. Shapiro, Ian. The State of Democratic Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. Page 7 of 8
The lecturer Ian Shapiro Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he also serves as Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. He has written widely and influentially on democracy, justice, and the methods of social inquiry. A native of South Africa, he received his J.D. from the Yale Law School and his Ph.D from the Yale Political Science Department where he has taught since 1984 and served as chair from 1999 to 2004. Shapiro is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a past fellow of the Carnegie Corporation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He has held visiting appointments at the University of Cape Town, Keio University in Tokyo, and Nuffield College, Oxford. His most recent books are Politics Against Denomination; The Real World of Democratic Theory; Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy against Global Terror; and The Flight From Reality in the Human Sciences. His current research concerns the relations between democracy and the distribution of income and wealth. Page 8 of 8