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Journal Article

Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

01 Feb 1997-Review of Metaphysics-Vol. 51, Iss: 1, pp 153-155
About: This article is published in Review of Metaphysics.The article was published on 1997-02-01 and is currently open access. It has received 2568 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Democracy.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The ambivalence inherent to the politics of juridification is explored in this article, where it is observed that some spheres of the life-world such as the family and the school are often pla...
Abstract: The article starts with the observation of an ambivalence inherent to the politics of juridification. On the one hand, some spheres of the life-world such as the family and the school are often pla...

136 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The grand challenges that humanity faces, such as poverty, inequality, hunger, conflict, climate change, deforestation, and pandemics, hinders the progress of sustainable development as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The grand challenges that humanity faces—poverty, inequality, hunger, conflict, climate change, deforestation, and pandemics, among others—hinder the progress of sustainable development. These issu...

134 citations


Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."

  • ...This concept, on which political CSR is also founded (Scherer & Palazzo, 2007), has been central in the theory of deliberative democracy (Chambers, 2003; Dryzek, 1990; Habermas, 1998, 2001; Thompson, 2008)....

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  • ...…forms of politics (e.g., parliaments, parties, elections) (Elster, 1986), deliberative democracy involves the shaping of public policy in discursive processes that Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3269129 26 actors (Fung, 2003a, 2006; Habermas, 1998, 2001; Roberts, 2004)....

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  • ...By contrast, deliberative democracy emphasizes the role of deliberations in the process of forming and changing preferences on public issues and explores the variety of communicative conditions and mechanisms to determine collective decisions (Habermas, 1998, 2001)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a path forward is suggested in which the concept of communicative power is set in relation to both social and functional forms of power within a combined philosophical and social-theoretical framework emphasizing diachronic, agential, socio-cognitive and learning theory dimensions.
Abstract: Habermas’ concept of communicative power as an expression of citizens’ political autonomy is first outlined and its significance is traced as a corrective to the narrowly strategic and conflictual account of power dominant in the social sciences. Nonetheless, the problems with Habermas’ account in doing justice to the creativity of social power in shaping the substantive parameters of communicative power are diagnosed. These are seen to result from his over‐dependence on a formal and deontological theory of morality and a polycentric–synchronic theory of society. A path forward is suggested in which the concept of communicative power is set in relation to both social and functional forms of power within a combined philosophical and social‐theoretical framework emphasizing diachronic, agential, socio‐cognitive, and learning theory dimensions.

131 citations


Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."

  • ...…these discourses of justification as a process of discursive political will formation by citizens that are active and influential and not radically compromised as with Rawls by the hold of specialized, elite deliberation on the ‘higher order’ of public reason (Rawls 1993/2005, Habermas 1996)....

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  • ...…of social systems and between system and lifeworld in the above sense with a theory of modern segmentary differentiation arising through the core-periphery architecture of what he terms the constitutional circuit of power (Habermas 1996), a term he takes from Bernhard Peters (Peters 1993)....

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  • ...Social integration, therefore, has a moral quality and this moral quality should in the end prevail over merely functional considerations but without denying the relative autonomy of primarily non-moral spheres of action (Habermas 1996)....

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  • ...One concept that has been addressed by Habermas since the 1980s of considerable significance for the theory of society is that of communicative power (Habermas 1986, 1996)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
Abstract: While theorists of cultural pluralism have generally supported tribal sovereignty to protect threatened Native cultures, they fail to address adequately cultural conflicts between Native and non-Native communities, especially when tribal sovereignty facilitates illiberal or undemocratic practices. In response, I draw on Jurgen Habermas' conceptions of discourse and the public sphere to develop a universalist approach to cultural pluralism, called the 'intercultural public sphere', which analyzes how cultures can engage in mutual learning and mutual criticism under fair conditions. This framework accommodates cultural diversity within formally universalistic parameters while avoiding four common criticisms of universalist approaches to cultural pluralism. But this framework differs from that of Habermas in two ways. First, it includes 'subaltern' publics, open only to members of cultural subgroups, in order to counter relations of 'cultural power'. Second, it admits 'strong' publics, democratic institutions with decision-making powers. Finally, I show how the subaltern, strong institutions of tribal sovereignty contribute to the fair discursive conditions required for mutual learning and mutual critique in an intercultural public sphere.

131 citations


Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."

  • ...Habermas’ response is given in Habermas, 1996: 313–14....

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  • ...Instead, the public sphere is described as a ‘network for communicating information and points of view (i.e., opinions expressing affirmative or negative attitudes)’ (Habermas, 1996: 360)....

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  • ...Simply aggregating individual preferences through voting procedures is insufficient for the rational creation of legitimate norms (Habermas, 1990: 91; Habermas, 1996: 181–3)....

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  • ...Under this theory, norms which diverge widely among cultural groups can nevertheless be considered legitimate so long as they meet three requirements pertaining to universal participation, the impartial moral point of view, and conditions of fairness (see Habermas, 1996: 182)....

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  • ...…cultural beliefs must be kept within the private sphere, where they may indeed animate individual life-plans.13 Clearly this differs from Habermas’ position that rational discourse must allow for the ‘free processing of themes, contributions, information, and reasons’ (Habermas, 1996: 107–8)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the tension between the legal and moral aspects of human rights can be resolved if and only if human rights are conceived as moral aspirations and not simply as legal claims.
Abstract: In this paper I argue that the discourse theoretic account of human rights defended by Jurgen Habermas contains a fruitful tension that is obscured by its dominant tendency to identify rights with legal claims. This weakness in Habermas’s account becomes manifest when we examine how sweatshops diminish the secure enjoyment of subsistence, which Habermas himself (in recognition of the UDHR) recognizes as a human right. Discourse theories of human rights are unique in tying the legitimacy of human rights to democratic deliberation and consensus. So construed, their specific meaning and force is the outcome of historical political struggle. However, unlike other legal rights, they possess universal moral validity. In this paper I argue that this tension between the legal and moral aspects of human rights can be resolved if and only if human rights are conceived as moral aspirations and not simply as legal claims. In particular, I shall argue that there are two reasons why human rights must be understood as moral aspirations that function non-juridically: First, the basic human goods to which human rights provide secure access are determinable only in relation to basic human capabilities that are progressively revealed in the course of an indefinite (fully inclusive and universal) process of collective learning; second, the institutional impediments to enjoying human rights are cultural in nature and cannot be remedied by means of legal coercion.

130 citations


Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."

  • ...(2) Citizenship rights to political membership....

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  • ...threatening poverty; (2) the relatively large gap in quality of life expectations between Habermas on human rights...

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  • ...human rights that sees human rights as claims against freedom-denying structures that have been imposed on persons without their free, rational consent and (2) an...

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing--and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves.
Abstract: With the radical changes in information production that the Internet has introduced, we stand at an important moment of transition, says Yochai Benkler in this thought-provoking book. The phenomenon he describes as social production is reshaping markets, while at the same time offering new opportunities to enhance individual freedom, cultural diversity, political discourse, and justice. But these results are by no means inevitable: a systematic campaign to protect the entrenched industrial information economy of the last century threatens the promise of today's emerging networked information environment. In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing--and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront us and maintains that there is much to be gained--or lost--by the decisions we make today.

4,002 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Archon Fung1
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a framework for understanding the range of institutional possibilities for public participation, including who participates, how participants communicate with one another and make decisions together, and how discussions are linked with policy or public action.
Abstract: The multifaceted challenges of contemporary governance demand a complex account of the ways in which those who are subject to laws and policies should participate in making them. This article develops a framework for understanding the range of institutional possibilities for public participation. Mechanisms of participation vary along three important dimensions: who participates, how participants communicate with one another and make decisions together, and how discussions are linked with policy or public action. These three dimensions constitute a space in which any particular mechanism of participation can be located. Different regions of this institutional design space are more and less suited to addressing important problems of democratic governance such as legitimacy, justice, and effective administration.

1,526 citations

01 Dec 2000
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the current debate about the nature of democracy and discuss the main theses of the approach called "deliberative democracy" in its two main versions, the one put forward by John Rawls, and the other one put forth by Jurgen Habermas.
Abstract: This article examines the current debate about the nature of democracy and discusses the main theses of the approach called 'deliberative democracy' in its two main versions, the one put forward by John Rawls, and the other one put forwardby Jurgen Habermas. While agreeing with them as regards to the need to develop a more of democracy than the one offered by the 'aggregative' model, I submit that they do not provide an adequate understanding of the main task of democracy. No doubt, by stating that democracy cannot be reduced to a question of procedures to mediate among conflicting interests, deliberative democrats defend a conception of democracy that presents a richer conception of politics. But, albeit in a different way thanthe view they criticize, their vision is also a rationalist one which leaves aside the crucial role played by 'passions' and collective forms of identifications in the field of politics. Moreover, in their attempt to reconcile the liberal tradition with the democratic one, deliberative democrats tend to erase the tension that exist between liberalism and democracy and they are therefore unable to come to terms with the conflictual nature of democratic politics. The main thesis that I put forward in this article is that democratic theory needs to acknowledge the ineradicability of antagonism and the impossibility of achieving a fully inclusive rational consensus. I argue that a model of democracy in terms of 'agonistic pluralism' can help us to better envisage the main challenge facing democratic politics today: how to create democratic forms of identifications that will contribute to mobilize passions towards democratic designs.;

1,338 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Public diplomacy, as the diplomacy of the public, not of the government, intervenes in this global public sphere, laying the ground for traditional forms of diplomacy to act beyond the strict negotiation of power relationships by building on shared... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The public sphere is the space of communication of ideas and projects that emerge from society and are addressed to the decision makers in the institutions of society. The global civil society is the organized expression of the values and interests of society. The relationships between government and civil society and their interaction via the public sphere define the polity of society. The process of globalization has shifted the debate from the national domain to the global debate, prompting the emergence of a global civil society and of ad hoc forms of global governance. Accordingly, the public sphere as the space of debate on public affairs has also shifted from the national to the global and is increasingly constructed around global communication networks. Public diplomacy, as the diplomacy of the public, not of the government, intervenes in this global public sphere, laying the ground for traditional forms of diplomacy to act beyond the strict negotiation of power relationships by building on shared...

936 citations

Book
05 Oct 2012
TL;DR: Tweets and the Streets as mentioned in this paper examines the relationship between the rise of social media and the emergence of new forms of protest, arguing that activists' use of Twitter and Facebook does not fit with the image of a "cyberspace" detached from physical reality.
Abstract: Tweets and the Streets analyses the culture of the new protest movements of the 21st century. From the Arab Spring to the "indignados" protests in Spain and the Occupy movement, Paolo Gerbaudo examines the relationship between the rise of social media and the emergence of new forms of protest. Gerbaudo argues that activists' use of Twitter and Facebook does not fit with the image of a "cyberspace" detached from physical reality. Instead, social media is used as part of a project of re-appropriation of public space, which involves the assembling of different groups around "occupied" places such as Cairo's Tahrir Square or New York's Zuccotti Park. An exciting and invigorating journey through the new politics of dissent, Tweets and the Streets points both to the creative possibilities and to the risks of political evanescence which new media brings to the contemporary protest experience.

911 citations