San Diego Law Review
Document Type
Article
Abstract
The crisis facing democratic self-government is first and foremost a crisis of self-governance, not of democracy.
Section II reviews the nature of complex systems and why our contemporary social and economic order qualifies as technically complexindeed, increasingly so—and why explicit overall, directed reform of our social world is hopeless. But hope is not easily abandoned: Section III critically looks at two continuing sources of hope. Section IV then turns to a critical issue: If not by central direction, how do such complex systems achieve orderliness and functionality? Section V turns to the heart of the matter: is democratic self-governance viable in our increasingly complex systems—or, more subtly, what form of self-governance seems the most viable? Section VI argues that effective self-governance is not a freestanding exercise of a general will but must be embedded in the deontic principles of a liberal order.
Recommended Citation
Gerald Gaus,
What Might Democratic Self-Governance in a Complex Social World Look Like?,
56
San Diego L. Rev.
967
(2019).
Available at:
https://digital.sandiego.edu/sdlr/vol56/iss4/8