The concept of democracy : from the competitive, economic or aggregative model to the deliberative model

The critique of social choice theories (Arrow, Elster) is continued, and the shortcomings of a model of democracy in terms of the simple aggregation of preferences are presented. We show the need to replace the market model with that of the forum or deliberative democracy. But by analyzing certain features of the approach proposed by Rawls and Habermas, we underline the difficulties of a purely procedural and non-substantive conception of the concept of democracy.