USYD Philosophy Postgraduate Work-In-Progress Seminar Benjamin Herscovitch: "Democratic Accountability & The Federal System of Government"
Monday the 16th of August, 3.30-5pm, Philosophy Common Room (Main Quad, University of Sydney) ABSTRACT: The federal system of government has long remained under-theorised by political philosophers. In a bid to rectify this, in my PhD thesis I advance a normative theory of federalism. One of the numerous arguments that I make in favour of the federal system of government is that it promotes democratic accountability. This amounts to the claim that, by virtue of its very nature, the federal system of government is more democratic than both systems of government that involve the fragmentation of political bodies into largely independent political units and unitary systems of government. In the first case, given global interconnectedness, the federal system of government is more democratic because it ensures that each subject's normative commitments exert political influence over legislative processes that indirectly affect them and which would otherwise only be influenced by the normative commitments of a select group of subjects. In the second case, the federal system of government is more democratic because it increases, both by electoral and extra-electoral means, the potency of the political influence of the normative commitments of subjects over legislative processes that directly affect them Everyone is welcome to attend. If you would like to present or require further information, please contact Nick Malpas at [email protected] The format is 30 minutes for presentations followed by 1 hour of discussion. Since the primary aim of this seminar is to generate discussion, presentations need not be particularly polished or formal.
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