The Place of Politics

This chapter concludes the book. It argues that no matter how thick a conception of democracy one favors, it must be acknowledged that democracy isn’t everything. This is because politics—and therefore democracy—is for something. The importance of getting politics right is partly due to the importance of the goods and aspirations that well-conducted politics serves. The point of democracy is to enable us to lead lives that involve the cultivation of valuable human relationships. But it is the essence of such relationships that the participants aim at goods beyond politics. Although our flourishing both individually and collectively surely requires social and political association, there are nonetheless components of human flourishing that cannot be won by politics alone.