How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
legitimacy of public decisions rests on reasoned discussion, not vote- counting → Bessette's term set against Bentham's aggregate democracy → majoritarian drift question points to a manner of deciding → common concerns settled by citizens giving and weighing reasons
Body flow
kim coercion-free dialogue as the core mechanism → Habermas: communicative action, better argument not power, ideal speech → Rawls: public reason, reasons others can accept → Cohen: reasons accessible to all → legitimacy + moral disagreement → quantity to quality → Gutmann & Thompson: mutually acceptable reasons → Sen: government by discussion checks unchecked power, curbs majoritarianism -. deliberative devices (mini-publics, assemblies, polling) carry the ideal into practice
Counter-view
assumes reasonable, roughly equal citizens → power inequality distorts discussion -. dominant speech styles — epistemic elite → Fraser: a single public sphere reproduces inequality → counter-publics for the marginalised
Conclusion routes
deliberation makes democracy substantive → voice over choice, debate over voting promise to improve public decisions holds only where inclusion is real → exclusion actively addressed
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
