Ronald Dworkin’s Justice for Hedgehogs and Partnership Conception of Democracy (With a Comment to Jeremy Waldron’s 'A Majority in the Lifeboat')

Abstract

In this article, I focus mainly the last part of Ronald Dworkin´s Justice for Hedgehogs and his argument for a partnership conception of democracy. For that purpose, first, I recall some of the main features that Dworkin had advanced in previous but intrinsically related works, about political morality, equality and democracy; second, I reassess the arguments for a partnership conception of democracy; third, I reconsider the resistance produced by Jeremy Waldron in his “A Majority in the Lifeboat” and the response provided by Dworkin, but since it may appear insufficient, I intend to present an alternative — or complementary — riposte in order to meet Waldron’s challenge; and, finally, I insist in the importance of taking Ronald Dworkin seriously.

Keywords: Democracy, Majoritarian Conception, Majority Rule, Partnership Conception