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Habermas on Democracy and Justice. Limits of a Sound Conception
Author(s) -
WEINBERGER OTA
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
ratio juris
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.344
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1467-9337
pISSN - 0952-1917
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9337.1994.tb00178.x
Subject(s) - legitimacy , presupposition , discourse ethics , impartiality , democracy , economic justice , sociology , politics , epistemology , law , deliberative democracy , democratic legitimacy , law and economics , political philosophy , political science , philosophy
. The author outlines limitations of the explanation capacity of Habermas's Discourse Philosophy, because of its problematic presuppositions. The main topics discussed are: (i) the legitimacy of legal systems; (ii) Habermas's concept of democracy; (iii) his theory of justice. Legitimacy cannot be based only on discourse processes, but it has to be defined by international law. Discourses in society are essential for democratic systems, but the discourses by themselves do not guarantee the optimal result as discourses may be disturbed by deceptive propaganda, by prejudices or by wrong political slogans. It is not convincing that discourse procedures guarantee impartiality and justice nor that in discourses better arguments always prevail.