Habermasian thinking on civil society and the public sphere in the age of globalization

College

College of Liberal Arts

Department/Unit

Political Science

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Perspectives on Political Science

Volume

47

Issue

4

First Page

271

Last Page

277

Publication Date

10-2-2018

Abstract

In today’s age of increasing globalization and the emergence of global public policy issues, the concepts of civil society, public sphere, and the legitimacy of the legal system require further analytical scrutiny and philosophical reflection. As such, this article reflects on how the renowned German philosopher and social theorist Jurgen Habermas, in his Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy (1996), addressed and reflected on the notions of civil society, the public sphere, and the legitimacy of the legal system. As Habermas admitted that barriers do exist within the civil society and the public sphere, the article examines the various ways of overcoming the barriers toward the full actualization of the civil society’s emancipatory potential. The article shows its conceptual arguments through the use of empirical examples vis-áa-vis the arguments of Habermas, and most importantly, that Habermasian insights need to be cast at the transnational level of democratic politics, rather than within the strict confines of political processes within the nation-state. © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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Digitial Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1080/10457097.2016.1175805

Disciplines

Political Science

Keywords

Civil society; Public sphere; Law; Jurgen Habermas; 1929-

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