Is Democracy "Beautiful"?

Our political preferences are largely a product of moral intuitions and aesthetic sensibilities that are difficult to account for.

“Is democracy beautiful?” I was asked to answer this question on a panel as part of a conference on beauty, of all things. The question initially struck me as odd. Plus, I didn’t really have an answer, a predicament that’s dogged me in recent months.

As I’ve gotten older (or less young), I’ve begun to think that most of our opinions are contingent and …