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Democratic Deliberation: Empowering Cultural Communities

Monique Deveaux

in Gender and Justice in Multicultural Liberal States

This chapter argues that deliberative democracy theory is an invaluable resource for thinking about how liberal democracies and minority cultural groups might mediate conflicts of culture. However, ... More

This chapter argues that deliberative democracy theory is an invaluable resource for thinking about how liberal democracies and minority cultural groups might mediate conflicts of culture. However, it needs to be amended in important ways if it is to respond to the needs of minority cultural communities. This chapter makes the case for a deliberative democratic approach to resolving tensions between gender equality and cultural recognition, grounding it in principle of political inclusion and democratic legitimacy. This conception of democratic deliberation is open-ended with respect to outcomes, and takes its cue from an agonistic account of power and dialogue rather than the reasoned deliberation usually urged by proponents of discourse ethics, such as Jürgen Habermas, Joshua Cohen, and Seyla Benhabib. This approach to negotiating conflicts, which emphasizes negotiation and compromise, can also help to empower vulnerable members of cultural groups who dissent from prevailing cultural roles and arrangements in their communities.Less

Stasis, or agonistic monism, names the forms of the relation between democracy and sovereignty

Dimitris Vardoulakis

in Stasis Before the State: Nine Theses on Agonistic Democracy

As soon as justification—and hence judgment and dejustification—are seen as more primary than legitimacy, we can argue that agonistic democracy is the form that precedes any particular formation of ... More

As soon as justification—and hence judgment and dejustification—are seen as more primary than legitimacy, we can argue that agonistic democracy is the form that precedes any particular formation of political regimes. I call this political insight agonistic monism.Less

Dialogical Democracy in a Boundary-Crossing World: Practical Implications

Hubert J. M Hermans

in Society in the Self: A Theory of Identity in Democracy

The democratic and dialogical self is placed in the broader context of three views on democracy—cosmopolitan, deliberative, and agonistic conceptions—relevant to a boundary-crossing world in which ... More

The democratic and dialogical self is placed in the broader context of three views on democracy—cosmopolitan, deliberative, and agonistic conceptions—relevant to a boundary-crossing world in which individuals and groups are faced with differences and oppositions. A model is presented including three fields of tension: between self and other, between three levels of inclusiveness (individual, social, and human), and between dialogue and social power. Meta-positions and promoter positions are included in the model. Its practical implications focuses on stimulating a dialogical relationship between reason and emotion, increasing tolerance of uncertainty, and including shadow positions as integrative parts of a democratic self. Finally, a definition of health is proposed that considers health of the self as a learning process in a democratic society.Less

Epilogue: A Relational Ontology of the Political

Dimitris Vardoulakis

in Sovereignty and Its Other: Toward the Dejustification of Violence

The final chapter argues that the most crucial political question is the relation between sovereignty and democracy. This questions allows for the development of a relational ontology according to ... More

The final chapter argues that the most crucial political question is the relation between sovereignty and democracy. This questions allows for the development of a relational ontology according to which sovereignty is an effect of agonistic democracy, or, differently put, democracy is more primary than sovereignty.Less

Judgment establishes the agonistic relation between democracy and sovereignty by dejustifying violence

Dimitris Vardoulakis

in Stasis Before the State: Nine Theses on Agonistic Democracy

Thesis 5 shows that the judgment characteristic of democracy consists in exposing the justification of violence characteristic of sovereignty as inadequate.