Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • Chapter 14 - Democracy as a Moral Challenge

  • from Part III - For the People
  • Edited by Ashley Weinberg, University of Salford
  • Book:
    Psychology of Democracy
    Published online:
    24 February 2022
    Print publication:
    03 March 2022, pp 307-331

  • Summary

    Democracy’s realisation depends upon citizens’ aspirations and capacities to sustain forms of self-governance that promote the expression of their personalities and the full actualisation of their potentials. The development of citizens’ personalities and of democracy are in fact mutually interdependent. Whereas citizens’ world views, reasoning, values, aspirations and habits are crucial to sustain the functioning of democratic institutions, the latter set the conditions for nurturing beliefs, motivations and behaviours that accord with their optimal development and with the pursuit of the common good. This makes democracy a challenge that cannot be successfully achieved unless grounded on the moral commitment of all citizens to treat each other with the same respect as each would like to be treated and to care for one another’s wellbeing as one might care for one’s own growth and happiness. Democracy is destined to fail unless the moral agency of citizens operates as a moderator of the new iniquities carried by modernity.