Does Democratic Legitimacy Have a Boundary Problem? Not if You’re a Realist

Abizadeh has argued that when democratic theory defines the people who comprise a demos, the character of that theory is self-referential because the democratic principle of legitimacy invokes the same people over whom democratic rule is exercised. On this view, the legitimate outcome of a decision is simultaneously its precondition. This challenge to democratic legitimacy is known as the legitimate boundary problem. In this realist reply informed by Bernard Williams, I argue that Abizadeh’s position renders democratic legitimation an undesirably open-ended question and that democratic legitimacy is satisfied internally, with reference only to the state’s citizens as its demos.