Journal Article•
Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy
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
More filters
01 Jan 2006
2,797 citations
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
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
References
More filters
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors approach the disintegration of the European Union from the perspective of democratic principles and propose an approach to the phenomenon from a democratic perspective, which they call democratic disintegration.
Abstract: While the emerging debate about the disintegration of the European Union focuses on descriptive and explanatory questions, this article approaches the phenomenon from the perspective of democratic ...
18 citations
01 Apr 2005
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine three different ways to approach the study of EU Eastern enlargement process: first, from a utility-maximising perspective, second, from the values stemming from EU's collective identity, and finally, using a deliberative framework.
Abstract: In this article we examine three different ways to approach the study of EU Eastern enlargement process: first, from a utility-maximising perspective, second, from the values stemming from EU’s collective identity, and finally, using a deliberative framework. More specifically, we look at whether each of these different rationales can explain the decision to enlarge, the selection of the candidates and the opening of negotiations. In our conclusions, we argue that while an instrumental logic can account for a good deal of EU member states’actions, a logic of justification has a great potential to explain why member states have felt obliged to refer their actions not to material interests but to norms and principles accepted by all.
18 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors defend a right to the justification of contract, with reciprocal and general reasons, and explore its main implications for the law of contract and its theory, arguing that the leading essentialist and other monist contract theories, offering blueprints for an ideal contract law based on the alleged ultimate value or essential characteristic of contract law, cannot justify the basic structure of contract.
Abstract: This paper defends a right to the justification of contract, with reciprocal and general reasons, and explores its main implications for the law of contract and its theory. It argues that the leading essentialist and other monist contract theories, offering blueprints for an ideal contract law based on the alleged ultimate value or essential characteristic of contract law, cannot justify the basic structure of contract law. Instead, it argues, a critical discourse theory of contract can contribute to the realisation of the right to justification of contract by exposing patterns of contractual injustice, in particular exploitation and domination by contract, that contract law can and should prevent.
18 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider a number of proposals for how democracy can be redesigned so as to mediate such a conflict and thereby better secure the demands of intergenerational justice.
Abstract: This paper explores one aspect of the problem of intergenerational justice that has largely been overlooked in the philosophical literature, namely, the fact that securing a just distribution of benefits and burdens between generations is a problem of transition: that is, a problem of how to realize the move from a world marked by intertemporal injustice to one in which the demands of justice between generations have finally been realized. More precisely, the difficulty is to identify a normatively defensible and institutionally accessible trajectory of social change from here to there. And that, in turn, requires us to combine considerations of justice and of fairness with those of democracy and institutional design. My question is thus whether there is a conflict or tension between justice and democracy in this regard and if so how, if at all, it can be overcome. To answer this question, I consider a number of proposals for how democracy can be redesigned so as to mediate such a conflict and thereby better secure the demands of intergenerational justice. As against their defenders, my central claim is that all of the proposals to address this problem themselves suffer from a fundamental weakness, namely, that they all assume that despite the fact that democracy is by its very nature ill-equipped to secure intergenerational justice, it is possible to nevertheless rely on democracy to solve this problem in the first place. But that, to put it colloquially, is like thinking that one can pull oneself up by one’s own bootstraps. Finally, I conclude by sketching the shape and contours of a solution to this problem that is better able than the alternatives to escape this objection.
18 citations