Democracy in the Pacific islands: comparable practices, contested meanings
Democracy in the Pacific islands: comparable practices, contested meanings
Ian Shapiro identifies three traditions of democratic thought: aggregative, deliberative, and minimalist. All three are apparent in the Pacific Islands despite most commentators and donors assuming that the meaning of democracy is fixed. The focus in development studies on institutions and their capacity to deliver pro-poor growth has generated a fourth tradition that revolves around the now pervasive governance concept. Rather than focusing on the general will of a sovereign people, this perspective is predominately concerned with the legitimate use of violence as a precursor to any development-orientated democratic state. Having reviewed the literature on democracy in the Pacific to parse out these four meanings, this article concludes that paying greater attention to this ideational equivocality would extend discussions about the suitability and transferability of this type of regime.
22-40
Corbett, Jack
ad651655-ac70-4072-a36f-92165e296ce2
Corbett, Jack
ad651655-ac70-4072-a36f-92165e296ce2
Corbett, Jack
(2015)
Democracy in the Pacific islands: comparable practices, contested meanings.
Democratic Theory, 2 (2), .
(doi:10.3167/dt.2015.020203).
Abstract
Ian Shapiro identifies three traditions of democratic thought: aggregative, deliberative, and minimalist. All three are apparent in the Pacific Islands despite most commentators and donors assuming that the meaning of democracy is fixed. The focus in development studies on institutions and their capacity to deliver pro-poor growth has generated a fourth tradition that revolves around the now pervasive governance concept. Rather than focusing on the general will of a sovereign people, this perspective is predominately concerned with the legitimate use of violence as a precursor to any development-orientated democratic state. Having reviewed the literature on democracy in the Pacific to parse out these four meanings, this article concludes that paying greater attention to this ideational equivocality would extend discussions about the suitability and transferability of this type of regime.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 1 December 2015
Organisations:
Politics & International Relations
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Local EPrints ID: 388375
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/388375
ISSN: 2332-8894
PURE UUID: 34a9fc0f-ff8e-46ce-90d3-cfb9bb7d60af
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Date deposited: 24 Feb 2016 12:45
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 22:56
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