Why Deliberation Cannot Tame Globalization : The Impossibility of a Deliberative Democrat

Abstract: How is it possible for individuals to exercise any control over a political order that is supranational and multilayered? This key question must be answered if we are to reconcile democratic principles with the requirement of global justice as well as with the cosmopolitan political institutions that play an ever-increasing role in our world. The leading answer to this question, at present, is that of Juergen Habermas and his followers: deliberative democracy. This article, however, argues that theories of deliberative democracy fail to take seriously both the problems and the opportunities of large-scale societies and so cannot provide adequate conceptual foundations for deepening and globalizing democracy. In particular, the participatory requirements of Habermas’s normative theory can be met only by making assumptions about human cognitive capacities and institutional capabilities that are not remotely plausible in any pluralistic society.

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Why Deliberation Cannot Tame Globalization ; volume:25 ; number:2 ; year:2003 ; pages:176-198 ; extent:23 ; Analyse & Kritik ; 25, Heft 2 (2003), 176-198 (gesamt 23)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Kuper, Andrew

Further information

• DOI: 10.1515/auk-2003-0204
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2404171621481.862112030001
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 10:55 AM CEST