Democracy as Cooperation

According to the author’s central thesis, democracy should be understood as a special form of cooperation. This thesis stands in contrast to a widespread rhetoric that sees the essence of a democratic order in the so-called »self-determination of the people«. Democracy, according to the counter-position developed here, does not require a collective actor. The idea of a representation of the will of the people is the late relic of the feudalistic doctrine of divine right; it hinders the development of viable federal structures below the »nation-state« level and the building of supranational democratic institutions.

Democracy as cooperation, however, also stands in contrast to the economistic variety of pluralism, according to which democracy is limited to establishing certain rules within which people optimise their private interests. The dissolution of citizenship into competing interest maximisers undermines the democratic constitution of a community. The supremacy of the market threatens democracy just as much as the supremacy of individual collective identities.

An introductory chapter on political ethics is followed by studies on the problem of cooperation in political philosophy. The main aim of the author’s argumentation is to show that the basis of a conception of democracy in a civil society is formed by an appropriate understanding of cooperation.