The business of democracy is democracy

In "Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy" (Harvard University Press, 2004), Richard Posner champions the work of the Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter, who distilled the democratic process down to the election of political officials from among a group of competing elites by the general population. He links this "pragmatic" account of democracy to a broader program of pragmatic adjudication and liberalism. This review critically assesses the empirical and normative grounds of Posner's argument, and accuses him of neglecting the pivotal role of politics, in both his democratic theory and his understanding of pragmatism.