Radical Democracy: Towards Re-Politization of The People - Softcover

Akkın, İ. Okan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 384540017X ISBN 13: 9783845400174

Publisher: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2011

Synopsis

In light of the notions of legitimacy, autonomy, plurality, and action in the philosophies of Rousseau and Arendt, it can be seen that formal democracy, having ceased to be the expression of the sovereignty of the people, fell into a legitimacy crisis and has become a system which makes the people apolitical. The facts in question have pushed philosophers to re-think the fundamental concepts underlying democracy and search for new conceptions. Nevertheless, it seems that no political model can succeed unless the people reach a certain level of ethical maturity. In this context, we are confronted with Habermas’ proceduralism which is based on the theory of discourse ethics. Habermasian democracy—which assumes the consent of all people as the basis of legitimacy—has goals like intersubjective understanding through rational justification and consensus in an ideal speech situation. Although it has criticizable sides, being the most appropriate account for our understanding of democracy ethics (considering politics as a part of being human) proceduralism can be defended. In the end, the point is making ethics of democracy prior to political models for re-politization of the people.

About this title

About the Author:

Studied at Middle East Technical University Dept. of Philosophy, in Ankara. In 2011, he got an M.A. degree and started the PhD program in philosophy. This book is based on Akkın's master thesis. For the present, Akkın works as a Research Assistant and his main areas of interest are social & political philosophy, social change, Arendt and Spinoza.

About this edition

• Publisher: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 384540017X
• ISBN 13: 9783845400174
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 120