Voting procedures are fundamental in contemporary liberal-democracies, which are mostly defined in a procedural sense. However, I will point out that the achievements of social choice theory and the various possibilities of vote manipulation should lead political philosophers to be at least cautious, if not skeptical, about whether democratic theory can actually deliver what it promises, namely that it can achieve democratic ends using democratic means. I will examine William Riker’s attempt to maintain a liberal conception of democracy, but I will argue that this proposal does not prove decisive. Procedural democracy thus turns out to be untenable, although the possibility of its justification at the non-procedural level remains open.
