For Liberty

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter considers evidence and arguments that democracy has a special relationship to liberty, either because democracies tend to promote civil and economic freedom, or because democracy is itself an important kind of freedom. Constant argues that the ancients regarded freedom as the right of equal participation, but Raaflaub argues that this is a mistake and the ancients in fact defended individual civil and economic rights. Republican theories hold that constitutional democracy can protect citizens from domination. Rousseau argues that democracy can create a system in which each person is bound by the law and yet at the same time is only bound by rules they set for themselves. The chapter ends by considering the empirical evidence that as a matter of fact, democracies protect freedom better than other systems.