The Possibility of Democratic Autonomy

What makes democracy valuable? For one thing, democratic institutions are widely thought to have good causal consequences. Perhaps they forestall famine, promote peace, generate growth; perhaps democratic regimes tend to respect the rights of their citizens—more reliably than non-democratic regimes do, at any rate. Yet democracy's value cannot be exhausted by these instrumental benefits, because, clichéd as they may be, it is easy to imagine cases where autocracy has better consequences than democracy. Imagine being ruled by a competent and benevolent dictator. They might forestall famine, promote peace, generate growth. They might assiduously respect their citizens' rights. Yet, however good the consequences of the dictator's rule, it seems that such a society would be missing out on something in not being governed democratically. If we take this intuition at face value—and why should not we?—we must conclude that democracy is intrinsically valuable.

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