Democracy in the Pacific Islands: comparable practices, contested meanings

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Abstract

Ian Shapiro identifies three traditions of democratic thought: aggregative, deliberative, and minimalist. All three are apparent in the Pacific Islands despite most commentators and donors assuming that the meaning of democracy is fixed. The focus in development studies on institutions and their capacity to deliver pro-poor growth has generated a fourth tradition that revolves around the now pervasive governance concept. Rather than focusing on the general will of a sovereign people, this perspective is predominately concerned with the legitimate use of violence as a precursor to any development-orientated democratic state. Having reviewed the literature on democracy in the Pacific to parse out these four meanings, this article concludes that paying greater attention to this ideational equivocality would extend discussions about the suitability and transferability of this type of regime.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)22-40
Number of pages19
JournalDemocratic Theory
Volume2
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Democracy
  • Democratic theory
  • Governance
  • Ian Shapiro
  • Pacific Islands

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