Featuring Edward L. Rubin, Distinguished University Professor of Law and Political Science, Vanderbilt University

Abstract: Existing definitions of democracy focus on one notable feature, an elected, policy making legislature. Existing theories of democracy, many of which are more aspirational than descriptive, focus on its virtues, such as liberty, equality, participation or deliberation. This paper, one chapter of a book in progress, argues that the essence of democracy is to establish a government that is responsive to the desires and needs of its citizens. A representative legislature is simply an historically evolved institution designed to achieve this goal. The administrative state, which emerged in Western society at the same time, i.e., the end of the eighteenth century, is another institution that is equally necessary if this goal is to be achieved. 
Read the complete abstract and paper here.