Norms for Political Argumentation in a Liberal Democracy

Abstract

In this thesis, I have attempted to show a connection between nor:ms for argumentation and requirements of a liberal democracy. The way in which we arrive at our decisions in a democracy is through the argumentative process. This argumentative process can be differentiated into eight separate argumentative dialogues, each having their own respective goals and initial situations. Given democracy's reliance on these argumentative dialogues, I derived three requirements which follow from our basic conception of democracy, i.e. government by the people. These three requirements are participation, trust and understanding. From these three requirements, I argued that it is possible to derive nor:ms of argumentation which in turn support and foster these requirements of democracy. They are fairness, honesty, and clarity, respectively. By bringing together political philosophy and argumentational theory, I have shown that the quality of one's arguments have direct consequences for democracy.