When most of us think of democracy and what it is, we are perhaps most likely to think of it as a political institution with a set of procedures. In his article, “Whose Democracy?” George Yancy questions this descriptive view of democracy—which he calls a “minimalist” view—as insufficient in capturing the moral imperative of democracy.

(i)        How is a maximalist conception of democracy, related to equality as a basic moral and democratic principle?

(ii)      Yancy is doubtful that the U.S. can properly be described as a democracy on a maximalist conception of democracy. Why?

(iii)      He is also critical of applying liberal individualism to the situation of the poor. (a) Why? (b) And what does this criticism have to do with democracy?

(iv)     Yancy thinks that Western countries’ push for democracy in African countries often is undemocratic. Why?

(v)      And on what basis does Yancy claim (in the last sentence of the article) that true democracy should be “invested in the authority of the people (and not the authority of the wealthy), the poor, the wretched, the downtrodden, the faceless, and the structurally ‘permanent’ underclass”?