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• Equal right to participate in the process of legislation
• Equal treatment of all groups
• Freedom to periodically elect political representatives who are expected to serve
the interests of at least a majority of citizens
• A majoritarian electoral system
• Public education that informs citizens how to participate in deliberations about
public issues
• Media institutions that keep the citizenry informed with news about the operation and policies of the legislature, the government and their political
representatives
4.2 The Common Good of Democracy
The ultimate purpose of democracy in a nation state is the achievement of the “common good”. The common good is about “social welfare” of the entire populace. It is
a collection of positive and negative ends of society (Venton 2015, p. 208; Victor
2008, pp. 129–130).
Positive ends
• Living standards (measured by per capita GDP)
• Secure full employment
• Education levels
• Democratic engagement
• Peace and security
• Health
• Equality in the distribution of wealth and income
• Leisure time
• Quality of environmental resources
Negative ends
• Incidence of crime
• Incidence of family breakdown
• Pollution of air and water
• Inequality in the distribution of wealth and income
• Incidence of poverty
The optimal mix of the foregoing elements can be determined by sociological
random surveys of public attitudes about the degree of importance that the “votes”
of all who are surveyed attach to each element. The aggregation of these monetary
values produces an arbitrary index number similar in kind to the statistical Consumer
Price Index numbers that are used to measure the degree of inflation in prices of a
representative basket of goods and services that are sold in the markets in the economy. Percentage changes in the resulting index numbers may be accepted as measures of progress for the entire society.
P. Venton
• Equal right to participate in the process of legislation
• Equal treatment of all groups
• Freedom to periodically elect political representatives who are expected to serve
the interests of at least a majority of citizens
• A majoritarian electoral system
• Public education that informs citizens how to participate in deliberations about
public issues
• Media institutions that keep the citizenry informed with news about the operation and policies of the legislature, the government and their political
representatives
4.2 The Common Good of Democracy
The ultimate purpose of democracy in a nation state is the achievement of the “common good”. The common good is about “social welfare” of the entire populace. It is
a collection of positive and negative ends of society (Venton 2015, p. 208; Victor
2008, pp. 129–130).
Positive ends
• Living standards (measured by per capita GDP)
• Secure full employment
• Education levels
• Democratic engagement
• Peace and security
• Health
• Equality in the distribution of wealth and income
• Leisure time
• Quality of environmental resources
Negative ends
• Incidence of crime
• Incidence of family breakdown
• Pollution of air and water
• Inequality in the distribution of wealth and income
• Incidence of poverty
The optimal mix of the foregoing elements can be determined by sociological
random surveys of public attitudes about the degree of importance that the “votes”
of all who are surveyed attach to each element. The aggregation of these monetary
values produces an arbitrary index number similar in kind to the statistical Consumer
Price Index numbers that are used to measure the degree of inflation in prices of a
representative basket of goods and services that are sold in the markets in the economy. Percentage changes in the resulting index numbers may be accepted as measures of progress for the entire society.
P. Venton