DEMOCRACY, PREFERENCES AND PATERNALISM

Democracy is essentially a political system that respects people's pre ferences, with models of democracy differing principally in how they a ccomplish that. Choice among those models can be facilitated by reflec ting upon various public policies which are not preference-respecting. Examination of policies which are paternalistic, and justifiably so, reveals which sorts of preferences ought be to respected and which not . These findings are then used to reflect back onto our choice among m odels of democracy.