Toward a Republican Liberalism

Abstract

Modern democracies are governed by elected elites providing only limited opportunities for a popular role in government. In Lincoln's terms they are governments "of" but not in any sense "by" the people. The central democratic justification of such governments is that they tend to work tolerably well "for" the people, at least compared to feasible alternatives. Theories of elite competition attempt to provide some reassurance that competition for office may induce officials to pay attention to popular wants and, in that way, to show how a government could satisfy Lincoln's third test -- furthering common interests.