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Meritocratic Democracy examines the effectiveness of democracy as a decision-making system, the role of political leaders and political parties in real-world democracies and shows that cross-cultural dialogue is imperative to generate innovative solutions to pressing political issues and foster reciprocal corrections.
List of contents
- Preface
- 1: Rethinking Democratic Theory in the Global Age
- Part I - Meritocratic Democracy: Value of Democracy
- 2: The Meritocratic Challenge to Democracy
- 3: The Limits of Confucian Political Meritocracy
- 4: China and Singapore: The Myths of Political Meritocracy
- Part II - Meritocratic Democracy: Value of Political Leaders
- 5: The Democratic Functions of Political Leaders
- 6: A Theory of Public Political Morality
- Part III - Meritocratic Democracy: Value of Political Parties
- 7: A Case for the Ethical Screening of Political Leaders
- 8: Objections to Intra-Party Ethical Screenings
- 9: Implications for Political Theory and Neighouring Fields
- Bibliography
About the author
Elena Ziliotti is an Assistant Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at the Delft University of Technology. Elena's research focuses on Western democratic theory and Comparative political theory, with a particular focus on contemporary Confucian political theory. She received her PhD in Philosophy from the King's College London and National University of Singapore Joint PhD program in 2018.
Summary
Meritocratic Democracy examines the effectiveness of democracy as a decision-making system, the role of political leaders and political parties in real-world democracies and shows that cross-cultural dialogue is imperative to generate innovative solutions to pressing political issues and foster reciprocal corrections.
Additional text
Meritocratic Democracy responds to a number of key issues of our time, including the 'crisis' of democracy, widespread concern with the quality of political leadership, and the value of an enlarged canon of political theory that includes classical and contemporary Confucian sources alongside those from the Western democratic tradition. On the one hand, it carefully rebuts normative and empirical arguments for the superiority of meritocratic over democratic systems of government. On the other, it draws on arguments for meritocracy to make a case for the moral pre-selection of potential leaders in democratic systems. In short, this is one of those rare and exciting books that breaks new ground with regard to both the content and method of contemporary political theory.