Description: Bargains are a fact of political life. But if bargaining inevitably involves asymmetric power, can it ever be just? Drawing on an analogy to the private law of contracts and on case studies across arenas of civic life, Democratic Deals shows that, subject to proper limits, bargaining can secure political equality and protect fundamental interests.
Brief description: Melissa Schwartzberg is Julius Silver, Roslyn S. Silver, and Enid Silver Winslow Professor of Politics at New York University, where she is also affiliated faculty in the School of Law and the Department of Classics.
Review Quotes: Much of democratic politics involves bargaining among unequally powerful people. How, then, can the results be legitimate? Melissa Schwartzberg and Jack Knight tackle this conundrum through the lens of contract law and its remedies for unconscionable agreements. Lucidly written with a minimum of jargon, Democratic Deals combines state-of-the-art democratic theory with a rich grasp of contract law and a refreshingly realistic standpoint. It is the best book on its subject and will be required reading for theorists and practitioners alike.--Ian Shapiro, author of Uncommon Sense