Justifying democracy and its authority ; Opravdanje demokratije i njenog autoriteta

Abstract

In this paper I will discuss a recent attempt of justifying democracy and its authority. It pertains to recently published papers by Niko Kolodny, which complement each other and taken together practically assume a form of a monograph (Kolodny 2014a, Kolodny 2014b). It could be said that Kolodny's approach is a non-standard one given that he avoids typical ways of justifying democracy. Namely, when a justification of democracy is concerned, Kolodny maintains that it is necessary to offer a kind of an independent justification. It is not so much that he insists that the usual approaches are wrong as much as that an independent justification is necessary in order to discern what it is that gives them their significance. Kolodny's independent justification of democracy is based on the idea of social equality. In this paper I will try to reconstruct and critically assess Kolodny's approach by paying special attention to the question of democratic authority. ; U ovom radu diskutovaćemo jedan skorašnji pokušaj opravdanja demokratije i njenog autoriteta. Reč je o nedavno objavljenim tekstovima Nika Kolodnjija (Niko Kolodny), koji se međusobno dopunjuju i uzeti zajedno skoro da imaju oblik monografije (Kolodny 2014a, Kolodny 2014b). Moglo bi se reći da je Kolodnjijev pristup nestandardan s obzirom da on izbegava tipične načine opravdanja demokratije. Naime, kada je reč o opravdanju demokratije, Kolodnji smatra da je potrebno ponuditi neku vrstu nezavisnog opravdanja u odnosu na uobičajene pristupe. Ne insistira se toliko da su dva uobičajena pristupa pogrešna, koliko da je potrebno nezavisno opravdanje kako bi se uvidelo ono što im uopšte daje bilo kakav značaj. Kolodnjijevo nezavisno opravdanje demokratije zasniva se na ideji o društvenoj jednakosti. U radu ćemo nastojati da rekonstruišemo i kritički procenimo Kolodnjijevo stanovište posvećujući posebnu pažnju pitanju autoriteta demokratije.